The Sacred theory of the Earth

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone, OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Courƒe of its Duration.

THE SECOND BOOK

Concerning thePRIMÆVAL EARTH, AND ConcerningPARADISE.

LONDON,

Printed by R. Norton, for Walter Kettilby, at the Biƒhops-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1691.

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Title Page of Second Book

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER XII

A short review of what hath been already treated of, and in what manner. The several faces and Schemes under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger, that should view it first at a distance, and then more closely, and the Application of them to our subject. All methods, whether Philosophical or Theological, that have been offered by others for the Explication of the Form of the Earth, are examined and refuted. A conjecture concerning the other Planets, their Natural Form and State compared with ours.

WE have finisht the Three Sections of this Book, and in this last Chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of, and add some further confirmations of it. The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first proposal and design of this Discourse, to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man: And the full Explication of this drew in the whole Theory of the Earth: Whose original we have deduced from its first Source, and shewed both what was its Primal Form, and how it came into its present Form. The summ of our Hypothesisconcerning the Universal Deluge was this; That it came not to pass, as was vulgarly believed, by any excess of Rains, or any Inundation of the Sea, nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters; unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time, namely when the Great Abysswas broken open. And accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution, or if the Earth had been always in the same form it is now, no mass of water, any where to be found in the World, could have equaled the height of the Mountains, or made such an universal Deluge. Secondly, we shewed that the form of the Earth at first, and till the Deluge, was such as made it capable and subject to a Dissolution: And thirdly, that such a dissolution being supposed, the Doctrine of the universal Deluge is very reasonable and intelligible; And not only the doctrine of the Deluge, but the same supposition is a Key to all Nature besides, shewing us how our Globe became Terraqueous, what was the original of Mountains, of the Sea-chanel, of Islands, of subterraneous Cavities; Things, which without this supposition, are as unintelligible as the universal Flood it self. And these things reciprocally confirming one another, our Hypothesisof the Deluge is armed both breast and back, by the causes and by the effects.

It remains now, that, as to confirm our Explication of the Deluge, we shewed all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible, so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the Earth, and concerning the original of Mountains, Seas, and all inequalities upon it, or within it, we must examine what causes have been assigned by others, or what accounts given of these things: That seeing their defectiveness, we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method.

And in order to this, let us observe first the general forms under which the Earth may be considered, or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely; And the first of these and the most general is that of a Terraqueous Globe. If a Philosopher should come out of another World out of curiosity to see our Earth, the first discovery or observation he would make would be this, that it was a Terraqueous Globe; Thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our World. This we discern in the Moon and most of the Planets, that they are divided into Sea and Land, and how this division came, would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our Earth; and how also those subdivisions of Islands, or little Earths which lie in the Water, how these were formed, and that great Chanel that contains them both.

The second form that the Earth appears under, is that of an uneven and Mountainous Globe. When our Traveller had got below the Circle of the Moon, he would discern the bald tops of our Mountains, and the long ranges of them upon our Continents. We cannot from the Earth discern Mountains and Valleys in the Moon, directly, but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there, we easily collect that there are such inequalities: And accordingly we suppose that our Mountains would appear at a great distance, and the shady Valleys lying under them; and that this curious person that came to view our Earth, would make that his second Enquiry, how those Mountains were formed? and how our Globe came to be so rude and irregular? for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into Nature, seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular, and whatsoever is not so is but secondary, and the consequence of some degeneracy, or of some decay.

The third visible form of our Earth is that of a broken Globe; not broken throughout, but in the outward parts and Regions of it. This, it may be, you will say, is not a visible form; it doth not appear to the eye, without reasoning, that the surface of the Earth is so broken. Suppose our new Visitant had now passed the middle Region of the Air, and was alighted upon the top of Pick Teneriffefor his first resting place, and that sitting there he took a view of the great Rocks, the wide Sea, and of the shores of Africkand Europe; for we'll suppose his piercing Eye to reach so far; I will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this Globe was broken, unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other Planet like to it; but the broken form and figure of many parts of the Rocks, and the posture in which they lay, or great portions of them, some inclined, some prostrate, some erected, would naturally lead him to that thought, that they were a ruine; He would see also the Islands tore from the Continents, and both the shores of the Continents and their in-land parts in the same disorder and irregular situation. Besides, he had this great advantage in viewing the Earth at a distance, that he could see a whole Hemisphere together, which, as he made his approaches through the Air, would have much what the same aspect and countenance as tis represented with in the great Scheme;} And if any man should accidentally hit upon that Scheme, not knowing or thinking that it was the Earth, I believe his first thought of it would be, that it was some great broken body, or ruined frame of matter; and the original, I am sure, is more manifestly so. But we'll leave our Strange-Philosopher to his own observations, and with him good Guides and Interpreters in his Survey of the Earth, and that he would make a favourable report at his return home, of our little dirty Planet.

In the mean time, let us pursue, in our own way, this Third Ideaof the Earth a little further, as it is a broken Globe. Nature I know hath dissembled and covered this form as much as may be, and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches, or fill them up; besides, the changes that have been made by Art and Humane industry, by Agriculture, Planting, and Building Towns, hath made the face of the Earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness. As mankind is much altered from its Pristine state, from what it was four thousand years ago, or towards the first Ages after the Flood, when the Nations lived in simplicity or barbarousness; So is the Earth too, and both so disguised and transformed, that if one of those Primitive Fathers should rise from the dead, he would scarce know this to be the same World which he lived in before. But to discern the true form of the Earth, whether intire or broken, regular or disordered, we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by Art or Nature, and view the bare carcass of the Earth, as it hath nothing on it but Rocks and Mountains, Desarts and Fields, and hollow Valleys, and a wide Sea. Then secondly, we must in our imagination empty this Chanel of the Sea, take out all the Waters that hinder the sight of it, and look upon the dry Ditch, measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind, and observe the manner of its construction, and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie; according as it hath been formerly represented. And lastly, we must take off the cover of all Subterraneous places and deep Caverns, to see the inside of the Earth; and lay bare the roots of Mountains, to look into those holes and Vaults that are under them, filled sometimes with Fire, sometimes with Water, and sometimes with thick Air and Vapours. The object being thus prepared, we are then to look fixedly upon it, and to pronounce what we think of this disfigured mass, whether this Exteriour frame doth not seem to be shattered; and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made World, or the ruines of one broken. I confess when this Ideaof the Earth is present to my thoughts, I can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produced, than if I had seen the Temple of Jerusalemin its ruines, when defaced and sacked by the Babylonians, I could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture, and that Solomonhad given orders for building it so.

So much for the form of the Earth: It remains now that we examine what causes have been assigned by others of these irregularities in the form of the Earth, which we explain by the dissolution of it; what accounts any of the Ancients have given or attempted to give, how the Earth swelled into Mountains in certain places, and in others was deprest into low Valleys, how the body of it was so broken, and how the Chanel of the Sea was made. The Elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another, and now we find them mixt, confounded and transposed, how comes this disturbance and disordination in Nature? The Explications of these things that have been given by others, may be reduced to two general sorts, Philosophicalor Theological, and we will try them both for our satisfaction.

Of Philosophers none was more concerned to give an account of such things than Epicurus, both because he acknowledged the Origin of the Earth to have been from a Chaos, and also admitted no causes to act in Nature but Matter and Motion: Yet all the account we have from the Epicureansof the form of the Earth, and the great inequalities that are in it, is so slight and trivial, that me-thinks it doth not deserve the name of a Philosophical Explication. They say that the Earth and Water were mixed at first, or rather the Earth was above the Water, and as the Earth was condensed by the heat of the Sun, and the Winds, the Water was squeezed out in certain places, which either it found hollow or made so; and so was the Chanel of the Sea made. Then as for Mountains, while some parts of the Earth shrunk and sunk in this manner, others would not sink, and these standing still while the others fell lower, made the Mountains. How the subterraneous Cavities were made according to them, I do not find.

This is all the Account that Monsieur Gassendi(who seems to have made it his business, as well as his pleasure, to embellish that Philosophy) can help us to out of the EpicureanAuthors, how the Earth came into this form; And he that can content himself with this, is, in my mind, of an humour very easie to be pleased. Do the Sun and the Wind use to squeaze pools of Water out of the Earth, and that in such a quantity as to make an Ocean? They dry the Earth, and the Waters too, and rarifie them into vapours, but I never knew them to be the causes of pressing Water out of the Earth by condensation. Could they compress the Earth any otherwise, than by drying it and making it hard? and in proportion, as it was more dry, would it not the more imbibe and suck up the Water? and how were the great Mountains of the Earth made, in the North and in the South, where the influence of the Sun is not great? what sunk the Earth there, and made the flesh start from the bones? But tis no wonder that Epicurus should give such a mean account of the Origin of the Earth, and the form of its parts, who did not so much as understand the general Figure of the Body of it, that it was Spherical, or that the Heavens encompast it round. One must have a blind love for that Philosophy, and for the conclusions it drives at, not to see its lameness and defects in those first and fundamental parts.

Aristotle, though he was not concerned to give an account how the Earth came into this present form, as he supposed it, Eternal; yet upon another consideration he seems obliged to give some reason how the Elements came into this disorder; seeing he supposeth, that, according to the order of Nature, the Water should lie above the Earth in a Sphere, as the Air doth above the Water, and his Fire above the Air. This he toucheth upon in his Meteors, but so gently and fearfully, as if he was handling hot coals. He saith the Sea is to be considered as the Element, or body of Waters that belongs to this Earth, and that these Waters change places, and the Sea is some Ages in one part of the Globe, and some Ages in another; but that this is at such great distances of time that there can be no memory or record of it. And he seems willing to suppose that the Water was once all over the Earth, but that it dried up in certain places, and continuing in others, it there made the Sea.

What a miserable account is this? As to his change or removal of the Sea-chanel in several Ages, as it is without all proof or probability, if he mean it of the Chanel of the great Ocean, so tis nothing to the purpose here; for the question is not why the Chanel of the Sea is in such a part of the Earth, rather than in another, but why there is any such prodigious Cavity in or upon the Earth any where. And if we take his supposition, that the Element of Water was once higher than the Earth, and lay in a Sphere about it, then let him tell us in plain terms how the Earth got above, or how the Cavity of the Ocean was made, and how the Mountains rise; for this Elementary Earth which lay under the Water, was, I suppose, equal and smooth when it lay there; and what reason was there, that the Waters should be dried in one part of it, more than another, if they were every where of an equal depth, and the ground equal under them? It was not the Climates made any distinction, for there is Sea towards the Poles, as well as under the uator; but suppose they were dried up in certain places, that would make no Mountains, no more than there are Mountains in our dried Marches: And the places where they were not dried, would not therefore become as deep and hollow as the Sea-chanel, and tear the Earth and Rocks in pieces. If you should say that this very Elementary Earth, as it lay under the Waters, was unequal, and was so originally, formed into Mountains and Valleys, and great Cavities; besides that the supposition is altogether irrational in it self, you must suppose a prodigious mass of Water to cover such an Earth; as much as we found requisite for the vulgar Deluge, namely, eight Oceans; and what then is become of the other seven? Upon the whole I do not see that either in Epicurus's way, who seems to suppose that the Waters were at first within the Earth; nor in Aristotle's way, who seems to suppose them upon the Earth, any rational or tolerable account can be given of the present form of the Earth.

Wherefore some modern Authors, dissatisfied, as very well they might be, with these Explications given us by the Ancients concerning the form of the Earth, have pitched upon other causes, more true indeed in their kind, and in their degree, but that fall as much short of those effects to which they would apply them. They say that all the irregularities of the body of the Earth have risen from Earthquakes in particular places, and from Torrents and Inundations, and from eruptions of Fire, or such like causes, whereof we see some instances more or less every Age; And these have made that havock upon the face of the Earth, and turned things up-side down, raising the Earth in some places, and making great Cavities or Chasms in others, so as to have brought it at length into that torn, broken, and disorderly form in which we now see it.

These Authors do so far agree with us, as to acknowledge that the present irregular form of the Earth must have proceeded from ruines and dissolutions of one sort or other, but these ruines they make to have been partial only, in this or in that Country, by piece-meal, and in several Ages, and from no other causes but such as still continue to act in Nature, namely, accidental Earthquakes and eruptions of Fires and Waters. These causes we acknowledge as readily as they do, but not as capable to produce so great effects as they would ascribe to them: The surface of the Earth may be a little changed by such accidents as these, but for the most part they rather sink the Mountains than raise new ones: As when Houses are blown up by Mines of powder, they are not set higher, but generally fall lower and flatter: Or suppose they do sometimes raise an Hill, or a little Mount, what's that to the great Mountains of our World, to those long and vast piles of Rocks and Stones, which the Earth can scarce bear? What's that to strong-backt Taurusor Atlas, to the American Andes, or to a Mountain that reacheth from the Pyreneansto the EuxineSea? There's as much difference between these and those factitious Mountains they speak of, as betwixt them and Mole-hills.

And to answer more distinctly to this opinion, as before in speaking of Islands we distinguished betwixt Factitious and Original Islands, so if you please we may distinguish here betwixt Factitious and Original Mountains; and allowing some few, and those of the fifth or sixth magnitude, to have risen from such accidental causes, we enquire concerning the rest and the greatest, what was their Original?

If we should suppose that the seven Hills upon which Romestands, came from ruines or eruptions, or any such causes, it doth not follow that the Alpswere made so too. And as for Mountains, so for the Cavities of the Earth, I suppose there may be disruptions sometimes made by Earthquakes, and holes worn by subterraneous Fires and Waters; but what's that to the Chanel of the Atlantick Ocean, or of the Pacifick Ocean, which is extended an hundred and fifty degrees under the uator, and towards the Poles still further. He that should derive such mighty things from no greater causes, I should think him a very credulous Philosopher. And we are too subject indeed to that fault of credulity in matter of Philosophizing; Many when they have found out causes that are proper for certain effects within such a compass, they cannot keep them there, but they will make them do every thing for them; and extend them often to other effects of a superiour nature or degree, which their activity can by no means reach to. nahath been a burning Mountain ever since and above the memory of Man, yet it hath not destroyed that Island, nor made any new Chanel to the Sea, though it stands so near it. Neither is Vesuviusabove two or three miles distant from the Sea-side, to the best of my remembrance, and yet in so many Ages it hath made no passage to it, neither open nor subterraneous. Tis true some Isthmus's have been thrown down by Earthquakes, and some Lakes have been made in that manner, but what's this to a Ditch nine thousand miles broad? such an one we have upon the Earth, and of a depth that is not measurable; what proportion have these causes to such an instance? and how many thousand Ages must be allowed to them to do their work, more than the Chronology of our Earth will bear?

Besides, when were these great Earthquakes and disruptions, that did such great execution upon the body of the Earth? was this before the Flood or since? If before, then the old difficulty returns, how could there be a Flood, if the Earth was in this Mountainous form before that time? This, I think, is demonstrated impossible in the Second and Third Chapters. If since the Flood, where were the Waters of the Earth before these Earthquakes made a Chanel for them? Besides, where is the History or Tradition that speaks of these strange things, and of this great change of the Earth? hath any writ of the Origins of the Alps? In what year of Rome, or what Olympiadthey were born? or how they grew from little ones? how the Earth groaned when it brought them forth, when its bowels were torn by the ragged Rocks? Do the Chronicles of the Nations mention these things, or ancient fame, or ancient Fables? were they made all at once, or in successive Ages? These causes continue still in Nature, we have still Earthquakes and subterraneous Fires and Waters, why should they not still operate and have the same effects? We often hear of Cities thrown down by Earthquakes, or Countries swallowed up, but whoever heard of a new chain of Mountains made upon the Earth, or a new Chanel made for the Ocean? We do not read that there hath been so much as a new Sinusof the Sea ever since the memory of man: Which is far more feasible than what they pretend. And things of this nature being both strange and sensible, excite admiration and great attention when they come to pass, and would certainly have been remembred or propagated in some way or other, if they had ever happened since the Deluge. They have recorded the foundation of Cities and Monarchies, the appearance of blazing-Stars, the eruptions of fiery Mountains, the most remarkable Earthquakes and Inundations, the great Eclipses or obscurations of the Sun, and any thing that looked strange or prodigy-like, whether in the Heavens or on Earth, and these which would have been the greatest prodigies and greatest changes that ever happened in nature, would these have escaped all observation and memory of men? that's as incredible as the things themselves are.

Lastly, to comprehend all these opinions together, both of the Ancient and Modern Authors, they seem all to agree with us in this, Thatthe Earth was once under another form; otherwise why do they go about to shew the causes how it came into this form. I desire then to know what form they suppose the Earth to have been under before the Mountains were made, the Chanel of the Sea, or subterraneous Cavities. Either they must take that form which we have assigned it before the Deluge, or else they must suppose it covered with Water, till the Sea-chanels were made, and the Mountains brought forth; As in that Fig. pag. 55 . And no doubt it was once in this form, both reason and the authority of Mosesassures us of it; and this is the Test which every opinion must be brought to, how the Earth emerged out of that watery form? and in particular, as to that opinion which we are now examining, the question is, howby Earthquakes, and fiery eruptions, subterraneous Waters, and such like causes, the body of the Earth could be wrought from that form to this present form? And the thing is impossible at first sight; for such causes as these could not take place in such an Earth. As for subterraneous Waters, there could be none at that time, for they were all above ground; and as for subterraneous Exhalations, whether Fiery or Aery, there was no place for them neither, for the Earth when it lay under the Water was a solid uniform mass, compact and close united in its parts, as we have shewn before upon several occasions; no Mines or hollow Vaults for the Vapours to be lodged in, no Store-houses of Fire, nothing that could make Earthquakes, nor any sort of ruines or eruptions: These are Engines that cannot play but in an Earth already broken, hollow, and cavernous. Therefore the Authors of this opinion do in effect beg the question; they assign such causes of the present form of the Earth, as could not take place, nor have any activity until the Earth was in this form: These causes may contribute something to increase the rudeness and inequalities of the Earth in certain places, but they could not be the original causes of it: And that not only because of their disproportion to such effects, but also because of their incapacity, or non-existence at that time when these effects were to be wrought.

Thus much concerning the Philosophical opinions, or the natural Causes that have been assigned for the irregular form of this present Earth. Let us now consider the Theological opinions, how Mountains were made at first, and the wonderful Chanel of the Sea: And these Authors say, God Almighty made them immediately when he made the World; and so dispatch the business in a few words. This is a short account indeed, but we must take heed that we do not derogate from the perfection of God, by ascribing all things promiscuously to his immediate action. I have often suggested that the first order of things is regular and simple, according as the Divine Nature is; and continues so till there is some degeneracy in the moral World; I have also noted upon several occasions, especially in the Lat. Treat. Chap. II the deformity and incommodiousness of the present Earth; and from these two considerations we may reasonably infer, that the present state of the Earth was not Original, but is a state of subjection to Vanity, wherein it must continue till the redemption and restitution of all things.

But besides this general consideration, there are many others, both Natural and Theological against this opinion, which the Authors of it, I believe, will find unanswerable. As first, St. Peter's distinction betwixt the present Earth and the Ante-diluvian; and that in opposition to certain profane persons, who seem to have been of the same opinion with these Authors, namely, that the Heavens and the Earth were the same now that they had been from the beginning, and that there had been no change in Nature, either of late, or in former Ages; These St. Peter confutes and upbraids them with ignorance or forgetfulness of the change that was brought upon Nature at the Deluge, or that the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were of a different form and constitution from the present, whereby that World was obnoxious to a Deluge of Water, as the present is to a Deluge of Fire. Let these Authors put themselves in the place of those Objectors, and see what answer they can make to the Apostle, whom I leave to dispute the case with them. I hope they will not treat this Epistle of St. Peter's so rudely as Didymus Alexandrinusdid, an ancient Christian, and one of St. Jerom's Masters, he was of the same opinion with these Theological Authors, and so fierce in it, that seeing St. Peter's doctrine here to be contrary, he said this Epistle of St. Peter's was corrupted, and was not to be received into the Canon. And all this because it taught that the Heavens and the Earth had changed their form, and would do so again at the Conflagration; so as the same World would be Triform in success of time. We acknowledge his Exposition of St. Peter's words to be very true, but what he makes an argument of the corruption of this Epistle, is rather, in my mind, a peculiar argument of its Divine Inspiration. In the second place, these writers dash upon the old rock, the impossibility of explaining the Deluge; if there were Mountains from the beginning, and the Earth then in the same form as it is now. Thirdly, they make the state of Paradiseas unintelligible as that of the Deluge; For those properties that are assigned to Paradiseby the Ancients, are inconsistent with the present form of the Earth: As will appear in the Second Book. Lastly, they must answer, and give an account of all those marks which we have observed in Nature (both in this Chapter, and the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh), of fractions, ruines, and dissolutions that have been on the Earth, and which we have shewn to be inexplicable, unless we admit that the Earth was once in another form.

These arguments being premised, let us now bring their opinion close to the Test, and see in what manner these Mountains must have been made according to them, and how the Chanel of the Sea, and all other Cavities of the Earth.}Let us to this purpose consider the Earth again in that transient incompleat form which it had when the Abysse encompast the whole body of it; we both agree that the Earth was once in this state, and they say that it came immediately out of this state into its present form, there being made by a supernatural Power a great Chanel or Ditch in one part of it, which drew off the Waters from the rest, and the Earth which was squeezed and forced out of this Ditch made the Mountains. So there is the Chanel of the Sea made, and the Mountains of the Earth; how the subterraneous Cavities were made according to these Authors, I do not well know. This I confess seems to me a very gross thought, and a way of working very un-God-like; but however let's have patience to examine it.

And in the first place, if the Mountains were taken out of the Chanel of the Sea, then they are equal to it, and would fill it up if they were thrown in again. But these proportions upon examination will not agree; for though the Mountains of the Earth be very great, yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean. The Ocean extends to half the surface of the Earth; and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Mountains, and the middle depth to the middle sort of Mountains, the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean; whereas we supposed them upon a reasonable computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land; and consequently, neither they, nor the Sea-chanel, could have been produced in this manner, because of their great disproportion to one another. And the same thing appears, if we compare the Mountains with the Abyss, which covered the Earth before this Chanel was made; for this Chanel being made great enough to contain all the Abyss, the Mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the Abyss, but the aggregate of the Mountains will not answer this by many degrees; for suppose the Abyss was but half as deep as the deep Ocean, to make this Calculus answer, all the dry Land ought to be covered with Mountains, and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep, or doubly high to the depth of the Abyss, because they are but upon one half of the Globe. And this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of Mountains and the Sea, their incongruency or disproportion.

Secondly, we are to consider that a great many Mountains of the Earth are far distant from any Seas, as the great in-land Mountains of Asiaand of Africk, and the SarmatickMountains, and others in Europe, how were these great bodies flung thorough the Air from their respective Seas, whence they were taken, to those places where they stand? What appearance is there in common reason, or credibility, that these huge masses of Earth and Stone that stand in the middle of Continents, were dug out of any Seas? We think it strange, and very deservedly, that a little Chapel should be transported from Palestineto Italyover Land and Sea, much more the transportation of Mount Atlasor Taurusthorough the Air, or of a range of Mountains two or three thousand miles long, would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible: Besides, neither the hollow form of Mountains, nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist, agrees with that supposition, that they were prest or taken out of the Chanel of the Sea.

Lastly, We are to consider that the Mountains are not barely laid upon the Earth, as a Tomb-stone upon a Grave, nor stand as Statues do upon a Pedestal, as this opinion seems to suppose; but they are one continued substance with the body of the Earth, and their roots reach into the Abyss; As the Rocks by the Sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the Sea in one continued mass: And tis a ridiculous thing to imagine the Earth first a plain surface, then all the Mountains set upon it, as Hay-cocks in a Field, standing upon their fiat bottoms. There is no such common surface in Nature, nor consequently any such super-additions, tis all one frame or mass, only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it. To conclude, tis not only the Mountains that make the inequalities of the Earth, or the irregularity of its surface, every Country, every Province, every Field hath an unequal and different situation, higher or lower, inclined more or less, and sometimes one way, sometimes another, you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform; and can you imagine that there were Moulds or Stones brought from the Sea-chanel to make all those inequalities? Or that Earthquakes have been in every Country, and in every Field? The inner Veins and Lares of the Earth are also broken as well as the surface. These must proceed from universal causes, and all those that have been alledged, whether from Philosophy or Theology, are but particular or Topical. I am fully satisfied, in contemplation of these things, and so I think every unprejudiced person may be, that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction, as we see every where in the parts of the Earth, nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation, in the nature of a general ruine.

We have now finisht this first part of our Theory, and all that concerns the Deluge or dissolution of the Earth; and we have not only establisht our own Hypothesisby positive arguments, but also produced and examined all suppositions that have been offered by others, whether Philosophical or Theological, for the Explication of the same things; so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject. For a conclusion of all, we will consider, if you please, the rest of the Earths, or of the Planets within our Heavens, that appertain to the same common Sun; to see, so far as we can go by rational conjectures, if they be not of the same Fabrick, and have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth. It is now acknowledged by the generality of Learned Men, that the Planets are Opake bodies, and particularly our next neighbour, the Moon, is known to be a Terraqueous Globe, consisting of Mountains and Valleys, as our Earth does; and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution, or from like causes as our Earth did. Mercuryis so near the Sun, that we cannot well discern his face, whether spotted or no, nor make a judgment of it. But as for Venusand Mars, if the spots that be observed in them be their Waters or their Sea, as they are in the Moon, tis likely They are also Terraqueous Globes, and in much what a like form with the Moon and the Earth, and, for ought we know, from like causes. Particularly as to Venus, tis a remarkable passage that St. Austin hath preserved out of Varro, he saith, That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happened to the Planet Venus, and that she changed her colour, form, figure, and magnitude. This is a great presumption that she suffered her dissolution about the same time that our Earth did. I do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other Planets, but the body of Mars looks very rugged, broken, and much disordered.

Saturnand Jupiterdeserve a distinct consideration, as having something particular and different from the rest of the Planets. Saturnis remarkable for his Hoopor Ring, which seems to stand off from his body, and would strongly induce one to believe, that the exteriour Earth of that Planet, at its dissolution, did not all fall in, but the Polar parts sinking into the Abyss, the middle or uinoctial parts still subsisted, and bore themselves up in the nature of an Arch about the Planet, or of a Bridge, as it were, built over the Sea of Saturn. Jupiter of all the Planets I take to be most intire, and in an Ante-diluvian state; His Fascir Belts, as they call them, I should guess to be Waters, or the two frigid Zones, where his Waters fall and make two Canals in those parts; such as we shall show to have been in our Earth before it was broke. This Planet without all doubt is turned about its Axis, otherwise how should its Four Moons be carried about it? And this is also collected from the motion of that (permanent) spot that is upon its body; which spot I take to be either a Lake, or a Chasm and Hiatusinto the Abysse of the Planet; that is part of the Abysse open or uncovered, like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure. And this might either have been left so, by Providence, at first, for some reasons fitting that Earth, or it may have fain in afterwards, as Plato's Atlantis, or as Sodomand Gomorrha, as some judgment upon part of that World. However that be, as to the Belts of Jupiter, which are the most remarkable Phomenonof that Planet, I take them to be his Zones, and to lie parallel with one another, and I believe also with his uator: But we must first know how his Poles lie, and in what situation with the Ecliptick, and in what Aspect to us, before such things can be certainly determined. In the mean time, if we have guest aright, that Jupiteris in an Ante-diluvian state, I should rather expect to find the Figure of his Body, than of any other of the Planets, to be Oval or Oblong, such as our Earth was before its Deluge. To conclude, seeing all the Planets that are placed in this Heaven, and are the foster-children of this Sun, seem to have some affinity one with another, and have much-what the same countenance, and the same general Phomena; It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way, and after the like manner as our Earth, each one from its respective Chaos; And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first, and an exteriour Orb formed over their Abyss: And lastly, that every one of them hath suffered, or is to suffer its Deluge, as our Earth hath done. These, I say, are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature, so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible.

And these things being thus, and our Theory of the Deluge, and the Dissolution which brought it, having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth, I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings, the custom of thinking otherwise, and the uneasiness of entring into a new sett of thoughts, that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception.

September 25, 2011
0
Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter XI

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER XI

Concerning the Mountains of the Earth, their greatness and irregular Form, their Situation, Causes, and Origin.

WE have been in the hollows of the Earth, and the Chambers of the Deep, amongst the damps and steams of those lower Regions; let us now go air our selves on the tops of the Mountains, where we shall have a more free and large Horizon, and quite another face of things will present it self to our observation.

The greatest objects of Nature are, methinks, the most pleasing to behold; and next to the great Concave of the Heavens, and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit, there is nothing that I look upon with more pleasure than the, wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth. There is something august and stately in the Air of these things, that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions; We do naturally, upon such occasions, think of God and his greatness: and whatsoever hath but the shadow and appearance of INFINITE, as all things have that are too big for our comprehension, they fill and over-bear the mind with their Excess, and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration.

And yet these Mountains we are speaking of, to confess the truth, are nothing but great ruines; but such as show a certain magnificence in Nature; as from old Temples and broken Amphitheaters of the Romanswe collect the greatness of that people. But the grandeur of a Nation is less sensible to those that never see the remains and monuments they have left, and those who never see the mountainous parts of the Earth, scarce ever reflect upon the causes of them, or what power in Nature could be sufficient to produce them. The truth is, the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things, or concerning the Original of them. You may tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls, or that there are Monsters under ground that throw up Mountains as Moles do Mole-hills; they will scarce raise one objection against your doctrine; or if you would appear more Learned, tell them that the Earth is a great Animal, and these are Wens that grow upon its body. This would pass current for Philosophy; so much is the World drowned in stupidity and sensual pleasures, and so little inquisitive into the works of God and Nature.

There is nothing doth more awaken our thoughts or excite our minds to enquire into the causes of such things, than the actual view of them; as I have had experience my self when it was my fortune to cross theAlps and AppennineMountains; for the sight of those wild, vast and indigested heaps of Stones and Earth, did so deeply strike my fancy, that I was not easie till I could give my self some tolerable account how that confusion came in Nature. Tis true, the height of Mountains compared with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable, but the extent of them and the ground they stand upon, bears a considerable proportion to the surface of the Earth; and if from Europewe may take our measures for the rest, I easily believe, that the Mountains do at least take up the tenth part of the dry land. The Geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their Charts, the multitude or situation of Mountains; They mark the bounds of Countries, the site of Cities and Towns, and the course of Rivers, because these are things of chief use to civil affairs and commerce, and that they design to serve, and not Philosophy or Natural History. But Cluveriusin his description of Ancient Germany, Switzerlandand Italy, hath given Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural face of them, and we have drawn (at the end of this Chapter) such a Map of either Hemisphere, without marking Countries or Towns, or any such artificial things; distinguishing only Land and Sea, Islands and Continents, Mountains and not Mountains; and tis very useful to imagine the Earth in this manner, and to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us Nature undrest; for then we are best able to judge what her true shapes and proportions are.

Tis certain that we naturally imagine the surface of the Earth much more regular than it is; for unless we be in some Mountainous parts, there seldom occur any great inequalities within so much compass of ground as we can, at once, reach with our Eye; and to conceive the rest, we multiply the same Idea, and extend it to those parts of the Earth that we do not see; and so fancy the whole Globe much more smooth and uniform than it is. But suppose a man was carried asleep out of a Plain Country, amongst the Alps, and left there upon the top of one of the highest Mountains, when he waked and looked about him, he would think himself in an inchanted Country, or carried into another World; Every thing would appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagined before. To see on every hand of him a multitude of vast bodies thrown together in confusion, as those Mountains are; Rocks standing naked round about him; and the hollow Valleys gaping under him; and at his feet it may be, an heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer. He would hear the thunder come from below, and see the black Clouds hanging beneath him; Upon such a prospect, it would not be easie to him to perswade himself that he was still upon the same Earth; but if he did, he would be convinced, at least, that there are some Regions of it strangely rude, and ruine-like, and very different from what he had ever thought of before. But the inhabitants of these wild places are even with us; for those that live amongst the Alpsand the great Mountains, think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country, all broken into Mountains, and Valleys, and Precipices; They never see other, and most people think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or another.

These Alpswe are speaking of are the greatest range of Mountains in Europe; and tis prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these heaps of Stones and Rubbish are; one way they overspread Savoyand Dauphin and reach through Franceto the PyreneanMountains, and so to the Ocean. The other way they run along the skirts of Germany, through Stiria, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, as far as Thraceand the Black Sea. Then backwards they cover Switzerlandand the parts adjacent; and that branch of them which we call the Appennines, strikes through Italy, and is, as it were, the back-bone of that Country. This must needs be a large space of ground which they stand upon; Yet tis not this part of Europeonly that is laden with Mountains, the Northern part is as rough and rude in the face of the Country, as in the manners of the people; Bohemia, Silesia, Denmark, Norway, Sweedland, Lapland, and Iseland, and all the coasts of the Baltick Sea, are full of Clifts, and Rocks, and Crags of Mountains: Besides the RipheanMountains in Muscovy, which the Inhabitants there use to call the Stone girdle, and believe that it girds the Earth round about.

Nor are the other parts of our Continent more free from Mountains than Europe, nor other parts of the Earth than our Continent: They are in the New World as well as the Old; and if they could discover two or three New Worlds or Continents more, they would still find them there. Neither is there any Original Island upon the Earth, but is either all a Rock, or hath Rocks and Mountains in it. And all the dry Land, and every Continent, is but a kind of Mountain: though that Mountain hath a multitude of lesser ones, and Valleys, and Plains, and Lakes, and Marshes, and all variety of grounds.

In America, the Andes, or a ridge of Mountains so called, are reported to be higher than any we have, reaching above a thousand Leagues in length, and twenty in breadth, where they are the narrowest. In Africkthe Mountain Atlas, that for its height was said to bear the Heavens on its back, runs all along from the Western Sea to the borders of ypt, parallel with the Mediterranean. There also are the Mountains of the Moon, and many more whereof we have but an imperfect account, as neither indeed of that Country in the remote and inner parts of it. Asiais better known, and the Mountains thereof better describ'd: Taurus, which is the principal, was adjudged by the ancient Geographers the greatest in the World. It divides Asia into two parts, which have their denomination from it: And there is an Anti-Taurusthe greater and the less, which accordingly divide Armeniainto greater and less. Then the CruciformMountains of Imaus, the famous Caucasus, the long Chains of Tartaryand China, and the Rocky and Mountainous Arabia. If one could at once have a prospect of all these together, one would be easily satisfied, that the Globe of the Earth is a more rude and indigested Body than tis commonly imagined; If one could see, I say, all the Kingdoms and Regions of the Earth at one view, how they lie in broken heaps; The Sea hath overwhelmed one half of them, and what remains are but the taller parts of a ruine. Look upon those great ranges of Mountains in Europeor in Asia, whereof we have given a short survey, in what confusion do they lie? They have neither form nor beauty, nor shape, nor order, no more than the Clouds in the Air. Then how barren, how desolate, how naked are they? how they stand neglected by Nature? neither the Rains can soften them, nor the Dews from Heaven make them fruitful.

I have given this short account of the Mountains of the Earth, to help to remove that prejudice we are apt to have, or that conceit, That the present Earth is regularly formed. And to this purpose I do not doubt but that it would be of very good use to have naturalMaps of the Earth, as we noted before, as well as civil; and done with the same care and judgment. Our common Maps I call Civil, which note the distinction of Countries and of Cities, and represent the Artificial Earth as inhabited and cultivated: But natural Maps leave out all that, and represent the Earth as it would be if there was not an Inhabitant upon it, nor ever had been; the Skeleton of the Earth, as I may so say, with the site of all its parts. Methinks also every Prince should have such a Draught of his own Country and Dominions, to see how the ground lies in the several parts of them, which highest, which lowest; what respect they have to one another, and to the Sea; how the Rivers flow, and why; how the Mountains stand, how the Heaths, and how the Marches are placed. Such a Map or Survey would be useful both in time of War and Peace, and many good observations might be made by it, not only as to Natural History and Philosophy, but also in order to the perfect imEvidencement of a Countrey. But to return to our Mountains.

As this Survey of the multitude and greatness of them may help to rectifie our mistakes about the form of the Earth, so before we proceed to examine their causes, it will be good to observe farther, that these Mountains are placed in no order one with another, that can either respect use or beauty; And if you consider them singly, they do not consist of any proportion of parts that is referrable to any design, or that hath the least footsteps of Art or Counsel. There is nothing in Nature more shapeless and ill-figured than an old Rock or a Mountain, and all that variety that is among them, is but the various modes of irregularity; so as you cannot make a better character of them, in short, than to say they are of all forms and figures, except regular. Then if you could go within these Mountains, (for they are generally hollow,) you would find all things there more rude, if possible, than without: And lastly, if you look upon an heap of them together, or a Mountainous Country, they are the greatest examples of confusion that we know in Nature; no Tempest or Earthquake puts things into more disorder. Tis true, they cannot look so ill now as they did at first; a ruine that is fresh looks much worse than afterwards, when the Earth grows discoloured and skined over. But I fancy if we had seen the Mountains when they were new-born and raw, when the Earth was fresh broken, and the waters of the Deluge newly retied, the fractions and confusions of them would have appeared very gastly and frightful.

After this general Survey of the Mountains of the Earth and their properties, let us now reflect upon the causes of them. There is a double pleasure in Philosophy, first that of Admiration, whilst we contemplate things that are great and wonderful, and do not yet understand their Causes; for though admiration proceed from ignorance, yet there is a certain charm and sweetness in that passion. Then the second pleasure is greater and more intellectual, which is that of distinct knowledge and comprehension, when we come to have the Key that unlocks those secrets, and see the methods wherein those things come to pass that we admired before; The reasons why the World is so or so, and from what causes Nature, or any part of Nature, came into such a state; and this we are now to enquire after as to the Mountains of the Earth, what their original was, how and when the Earth came into this strange frame and structure? In the beginning of our World, when the Earth rise from a Chaos, twas impossible it should come immediately into this Mountainous form; because a mass that is fluid, as a Chaos is, cannot lie in any other figure than what is regular; for the constant laws of Nature do certainly bring all Liquors into that form: And a Chaos is not called so from any confusion or brokenness in the form of it, but from a confusion and mixture of all sorts of ingredients in the composition of it. So we have already produced, in the precedent Chapters, a double argument that the Earth was not originally in this form, both becaute it rise from a Chaos, which could not of it self, or by any immediate concretion, settle into a form of this nature, as hath been shown in the Fourth and Fifth Chapters; as also because if it had been originally made thus, it could never have undergone a Deluge, as hath been Evidenced in the Second and Third Chapters. If this be then a secondary and succedaneous form, the great question is from what causes it arises.

Some have thought that Mountains, and all other irregularities in the Earth, have rise from Earthquakes, and such like causes; others have thought that they came from the universal Deluge; yet not from any dissolution of the Earth that was then, but only from the great agitation of the waters, which broke the ground into this rude and unequal form. Both these causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient. Earthquakes seldom make Mountains, they often take them away, and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them; Besides, Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are; for, as we have observed more than once, there is neither Island that is original, nor Continent any where in the Earth, in what latitude soever, but hath Mountains and Rocks in it. And lastly, what probability is there, or how is it credible, that those vast tracts of Land which we see filled with Mountains both in Europe, Asiaand Africa, were raised by Earthquakes, or any eruptions from below. In what Age of the World was this done, and why not continued? As for the Deluge, I doubt not but Mountains were made in the time of the general Deluge, that great change and transformation of the Earth happened then, but not from such causes as are pretended, that is, the bare rowling and agitation of the waters; For if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood, as they seem to suppose as well as we do, the waters could have little or no power over a smooth surface to tear it any way in pieces, no more than they do a meadow or low ground when they lie upon it; for that which makes Torrents and Land-floods violent, is their fall from the Mountains and high Lands, which our Earth is now full of, but if the Rain fell upon even and level ground, it would only sadden and compress it; there is no possibility how it should raise Mountains in it. And if we could imagine an universal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted, it would rather throw down the Hills and Mountains than raise new ones; or by beating down their tops and loose parts, help to fill the Valleys, and bring the Earth nearer to evenness and plainness.

Seeing then there are no hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains, either from particular Earthquakes, or from the general Deluge, according to the common notion and Explication of it; these not being causes answerable to such vast effects; Let us try our Hypothesisagain; which hath made us a Chanel large enough for the Sea, and room for all subterraneous Cavities, and I think will find us materials enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth. We suppose the great Arch or circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge, and seeing that was larger than the surface it fell upon, tis absolutely certain, that it could not all fall flat, or lie under the water: Now as all those parts that stood above the water made dry Land, or the present habitable Earth, so such parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest, made Hills and Mountains; And this is the first and general account of them, and of all the inequalities of the Earth. But to consider these things a little more particularly; There is a double cause and necessity of Mountains, first this now mentioned, because the exteriour Orb of the Earth was greater than the interiour which it fell upon, and therefore it could not all fall flat; and secondly, because this exteriour Orb did not fall so flat and large as it might, or did not cover all the bottom of the Abyss, as it was very capable to do; but as we shewed before in explaining the Chanel of the Ocean, it left a gaping in the middle, or an Abyss-chanel, as I should call it; and the broader this Abyss-chanel was, the more Mountains there would be upon the dry Land; for there would be more Earth, or more of the falling Orb left, and less room to place it in, and therefore it must stand more in heaps.

In what parts of the Earth these heaps would lie, and in what particular manner, it cannot be expected that we should tell; but all that we have hitherto observ'd concerning Mountains, how strange soever and otherwise unaccountable, may easily be explained, and deduced from this original; we shall not wonder at their greatness and vastness, seeing they are the ruines of a broken World; and they would take up more or less of the dry Land, according as the Ocean took up more or less space of our Globe: Then as to their figure and form, whether External or Internal, tis just such as answers our expectation, and no more than what the Hypothesisleads us to; For you would easily believe that these heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways, whether considered apart, or in their situation to one another. And they would lie commonly in Clusters and in Ridges, for those are two of the most general postures of the parts of a ruine, when they fall inwards. Lastly, we cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow; For great bodies falling together in confusion, or bearing and leaning against one another, must needs make a great many hollownesses in them, and by their unequal Applications empty spaces will be intercepted. We see also from the same reason, why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes; and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie under them; their joynts and props being decayed and worn, they become unable to bear their weight. And all these properties you see hang upon one and the same string, and are just consequences from our supposition concerning the dissolution of the first Earth. And there is no surer mark of a good Hypothesis, than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two particulars, but answers all that it is to be applied to, and is adequate to Nature in her whole extent.

But how fully or easily soever these things may answer Nature, you will say, it may be, that all this is but an Hypothesis; that is, a kind of fiction or supposition that things were so and so at first, and by the coherence and agreement of the Effects with such a supposition, you would argue and Evidence that they were really so. This I confess is true, this is the method, and if we would know any thing in Nature further than our senses go, we can know it no otherwise than by an Hypothesis. When things are either too little for our senses, or too remote and inaccessible, we have no way to know the inward Nature, and the causes of their sensible properties, but by reasoning upon an Hypothesis. If you would know, for example, of what parts Water, or any other Liquor consists, they are too little to be discerned by the Eye, you must therefore take a supposition concerning their invisible figure and form, and if that agrees and gives the reason of all their sensible qualities, you understand the nature of Water. In like manner, if you would know the nature of a Comet, or of what matter the Sun consists, which are things inaccessible to us, you can do this no otherwise than by an Hypothesis; and if that Hypothesisbe easie and intelligible, and answers all the Phomenaof those two bodies, you have done as much as a Philosopheror as Humane reasoncan do. And this is what we have attempted concerning the Earth and concerning the Deluge; We have laid down an Hypothesisthat is easie and perspicuous, consisting of a few things, and those very intelligible, and from this we have given an account how the Old World was destroyed by a Deluge of water, and how the Earth came into this present form; so distinguished and interrupted with Sea and Land, Mountains and Valleys, and so broken in the surface and inward parts of it.

Fig 1 Fig 1

But to speak the Truth, this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis; because we are assured that the general ground that we go upon is true, namely, that the Earth rise at first from a Chaos; for besides Reason and Antiquity, Scripture it self doth assure as of that; and that one point being granted, we have deduced from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences, which I think cannot be broken easily in partpart or link of it. Besides, the great hinge of this Theory upon which all the rest turns, is the distinction we make of the Antediluvian Earth and Heavens from the Post-diluvian, as to their form and constitution.

Fig. 2

And it will never be beaten out of my head, but that St. Peterhath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since, and to the very same purpose; so that we have sure footing here again, and the Theory riseth above the character of a bare Hypothesis. And whereas an Hypothesisthat is clear and proportioned to Nature in every respect, is accounted morally certain, we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory. But I mean this only as to the general parts of it; for as to particularities, I look upon them only as problematical, and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation, and a liberty to change my opinion when I shall be better informed. Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a matter new, remote, and consisting of a multitude of particulars, who would not have had occasion, if he had lived to have seen his Hypothesisfully examined, to have changed his mind and manner of explaining things, in many material instances.

To conclude both this Chapter and this Section, we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth, according to the Natural face of it, as it would appear from the Moon, if we were a little nearer to her; or as it was at first after the Deluge, before Cities were built, distinctions of Countries made, or any alterations by humane industry. Tis chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth, and the proportions of Sea and Land, to shew it as it lies in it self, and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it. Tis true, there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented, for more could not conveniently be placed in this narrow Scheme; But the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the Earth as it is by Nature, would be, not in plain Tables, but by a rough Globe, expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the Earth. The smooth Globes that we use, do but nourish in us the conceit of the Earth's regularity, and though they may be convenient enough for Geographical purposes, they are not so proper for Natural Science; nothing would be more useful, in this respect, than a rough Globe of the largest dimensions, wherein the Chanel of the Sea should be really hollow, as it is in Nature, with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings, and the shores exprest both according to matter and form, little Rocks standing where there are Rocks, and Sands and Beaches in the places where they are found; And all the Islands planted in the Sea-chanel in a due form, and in their solid dimensions. Then upon the Land should stand all the ranges of Mountains, in the same order or disorder that Nature hath set them there; And the in-land Seas, and great Lakes, or rather the beds they lie in, should be duly represented; as also the vast desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth. And this being done with care and due Art, would be a true Epitome or true model of our Earth. Where we should see, besides other instructions, what a rude Lump our World is, which we are so apt to dote upon.

September 25, 2011
0
Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter X

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER X

Concerning the Chanel of the Sea, and the Original of it: The Causes of its irregular form and unequal depths: As also of the Original of Islands, their situation, and other properties.

WE have hitherto given an account of the Subterraneous Regions, and of their general form; We now come above ground to view the surface of the Globe, which we find Terraqueous, or divided into Sea and Land: These we must survey, and what is remarkable in them as to their frame and structure, we must give an account of from our Hypothesis, and shew to be inaccountable from any other.

As for the Ocean, there are two things considerable in it, the Water and the Chanel that contains it. The Water, no doubt is as ancient as the Earth and contemporary with it, and we suppose it to be part of the great Abysse wherein the World was drowned; the rest lying covered under the hollow fragments of Continents and Islands. But that is not so much the subject of our present discourse as the Chanel of the Ocean, that vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe, and reacheth, for ought we know, from Pole to Pole, and in many places is unsearchably deep: When I present this great Gulf to my imagination, emptied of all its waters, naked and gaping at the Sun, stretching its jaws from one end of the Earth to another, it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature. What hands or instruments could work a Trench in the body of the Earth of this vastness, and lay Mountains and Rocks on the side of it, as Ramparts to enclose it?

But as we justly admire its greatness, so we cannot at all admire its beauty or elegancy, for ’tis as deformed and irregular as it is great. And there appearing nothing of order or any regular design in its parts, it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the work of Nature, according to her first intention, or according to the first model that was drawn in measure and proportion, by the Line and by the Plummet, but a secondary work, and the best that could be made of broken materials. And upon this supposition ’tis easie to imagine, how upon the dissolution of the primæval Earth the Chanel of the Sea was made, or that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth; which shall be more particularly explained after we have viewed a little better the form of it, and the Islands that lie scattered by its shores.

There is no Cavity in the Earth, whether open or Subterraneous, that is comparably so great as that of the Ocean, nor would any appear of that deformity if we could see it empty. The inside of a Cave is rough and unsightly; The beds of great Rivers and great Lakes when they are laid dry, look very raw and rude; The Valleys of the Earth, if they were naked, without Trees and without Grass, nothing but bare ground and bare stones, from the tops of their Mountains would have a ghastly aspect; but the Sea-chanel is the complex of all these; here Caves, empty Lakes, naked Valleys are represented as in their original, or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their irregularities; for the Cavity of the Ocean is universally irregular, both as to the shores and borders of it; as to the uncertain breadth and the uncertain depth of its several parts, and as to its ground and bottom and the whole mould: If the Sea had been drawn round the Earth in regular figures and borders, it might have been a great beauty to our Globe, and we should reasonably have concluded it a work of the first Creation, or of Nature's first production; but finding on the contrary all the marks of disorder and disproportion in it, we may as reasonably conclude, that it did not belong to the first order of things, but was something succedaneous, when the degeneracy of Mankind, and the judgments of God had destroyed the first World, and subjected the Creation to some kind of Vanity.

Nor can it easily be imagined, if the Sea had been always, and the Earth, in this Terraqueousform, broke into Continents and Islands, how Mankind could have been propagated at first through the face of the Earth, all from one head and from one place. For Navigation was not then known, at least as to the grand Ocean, or to pass from Continent to Continent; And, I believe, Noah's Ark was the first Ship, or Vessel of bulk, that ever was built in the World; how could then the Posterity of Adamoverflow the Earth, and stock the several parts of the World, if they had been distant or separate then, as they are now, by the interposal of the great Ocean? But this consideration we will insist upon more largely in another place; let us reflect upon the irregularities of the Sea-chanel again, and the possible causes of it.

If we could imagine the Chanel of the Sea to have been made as we may imagine the Chanels of Rivers to have been, by long and insensible attrition, the water wearing by degrees the ground under it, by the force it hash from its descent and course, we should not wonder at its irregular form; but ’tis not possible it should have had any such original; whence should its waters have descended, from what Mountains, or from what Clouds? Where is the spring-head of the Sea? what force could eat away half the surface of the Earth, and wear it hollow to an immeasurable depth? This must not be from feeble and lingring causes, such as the attrition of waters, but from some great violence offered to Nature, such as we suppose to have been in the general Deluge, when the frame of the Earth was broken. And after we have a little surveyed the Sea-coast, and so far as we can, the form of the Sea-chanel, we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other original than what we assign.

The shores and coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform, but go in a line uncertainly crooked and broke; indented and jaged as a thing torn, as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts; and yet there are innumerable more inequalities than are taken notice of in those draughts; for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays; but there are besides those a multitude of Creeks and out-lets, necks of Land and Angles, which break the evenness of the shore in all manner of ways. Then the height and level of the shore is as uncertain as the line of it; ’Tis sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes spread in sandy Plains, as smooth as the Sea it self, and of such an equal height with it, that the waves seem to have no bounds but the meer figure and convexity of the Globe; In other places ’tis raised into banks and ramparts of Earth, and in others ’tis walled in with Rocks; And all this without any order that we can observe, or any other reason than that this is what might be expected in a ruine.

As to the depths and soundings of the Sea, they are under no rule nor equality any more than the figures of the Shores; Shallows in some places, and Gulfs in others; beds of Sands sometimes, and sometimes Rocks under water; as Navigators have learned by a long and dangerous experience: And though we that are upon dry Land, are not much concerned how the Rocks and the Shelves lie in the Sea, yet a poor Ship-wreckt Mariner, when he hath run his Vessel upon a Rock in the middle of the Chanel, expostulates bitterly with Nature, who it was that placed that Rock there, and to what purpose? was there not room enough, saith he, upon the Land, or the Shore, to lay your great Stones, but they must be thrown into the middle of the Sea, as it were in spite to Navigation? The best Apology that can be made for Nature in this case, so far as I know, is to confess that the whole business of the Sea-chanel is but a ruine, and in a ruine things tumble uncertainly, and commonly lie in confusion: Though to speak the truth, it seldom happens, unless in narrow Seas, that Rocks or Banks or Islands lie in the middle of them, or very far from the Shores.

Having viewed the more visible parts of the Chanel of the Sea, we must now descend to the bottom of it, and see the form and contrivance of that; but who shall guide us in our journey, while we walk, as Jobsaith, in the search of the deep? Or who can make a description of that which none hath seen? It is reasonable to believe, that the bottom of the Sea is much more rugged, broken and irregular than the face of the Land; There are Mountains, and Valleys, and Rocks, and ridges of Rocks, and all the common inequalities we see upon Land; besides these, ’tis very likely there are Caves under water, and hollow passages into the bowels of the Earth, by which the Seas circulate and communicate one with another, and with Subterraneous waters; Those great Eddeesand infamous Syrtesand Whirlpools that are in some Seas, as the Baltickand the Mediterranean, that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach, show that there is something below that sucks from them in proportion, and that drinks up the Sea as the Sea drinks up the Rivers. We ought also to imagine the Shores within the water to go inclined and sloping, but with great inequality; there are many Shelves in the way, and Chambers, and sharp Angles; and many broken Rocks and great Stones lie tumbled down to the bottom.

’Tis true these things affect us little, because they are not exposed to our senses; and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from reason what the form of the invisible and inaccessible parts of the Earth is; Or if we do sometimes, those Idea's are faint and weak, and make no lasting impression upon our imagination and passions; but if we should suppose the Ocean dry, and that we lookt down from the top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell, how horridly and barbarously would it look? And with what amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell, or a wide bottomless pit? So deep, and hollow, and vast; so broken and confused, so every way deformed and monstrous. This would effectually waken our imagination, and make us inquire and wonder how such a thing came in Nature; from what causes, by what force or engines could the Earth be torn in this prodigious manner? did they dig the Sea with Spades, and carry out the molds in hand-baskets? where are the entrails laid? and how did they cleave the Rocks asunder? if as many Pioneers as the Army of Xerxes, had been at work ever since the beginning of the World, they could not have made a ditch of this greatness. According to the proportions taken before in the Second Chapter, the Cavity or capacity of the Sea-chanel will amount to no less than 4639090 cubical miles. Nor is it the greatness only, but that wild and multifarious confusion which we see in the parts and fashion of it, that makes it strange and inaccountable; ’tis another Chaos in its kind, who can paint the Scenes of it? Gulfs, and Precipices, and Cataracts; Pits within Pits, and Rocks under Rocks, broken Mountains and ragged Islands, that look as if they had been Countries pulled up by the roots, and planted in the Sea.

If we could make true and full representations of these things to our selves, I think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate product of Divine Omnipotence; being destitute of all appearance of Art or Counsel. The first orders of things are more perfect and regular, and this Decorumseems to be observed afterwards, Nature doth not fall into disorder till Mankind be first degenerate and leads the way. Monsters have been often made an argument against Providence; if a Calf have two heads, or five legs, streight there must not be a God in Heaven, or at least not upon Earth; and yet this is but a chance that happens once in many years, and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the World: but if we make the standing frame of Nature monstrous, or deformed and disproportioned, and to have been so not by corruption and degeneracy, but immediately by Divine Creation or Formation, it would not be so easie to answer that objection against Providence. Let us therefore prevent this imputation, and supposing, according to our Theory, that these things were not originally thus, let us now explain more distinctly how they came to pass at the Deluge, or upon the dissolution of the first Earth.

And we will not content our selves with a general answer to these observations concerning the Sea-chanel, as if it was a sufficient account of them to say they were the effects of a ruine; there are other things to be considered and explained besides this irregularity, as the vast hollowness of this Cavity, bigger incomparably than any other belonging to the Earth; and also the declivity of the sides of it, which lie shelving from top to bottom; For notwithstanding all the inequalities we have taken notice of in the Chanel or the Sea, it hath one general form, which may, though under many differences, be observed throughout, and that is, that the shores and sides within the water lie inclined, and you descend by degrees to the deepest part, which is towards the middle. This, I know, admits of many exceptions, for sometimes upon a rocky shore, or among rocky Islands the Sea is very deep close to the Rocks, and the deeper commonly the higher and steeper the Rocks are. Also where the descent is more leisurely, ’tis often after a different manner, in some Coasts more equal and uniform, in others more broken and interrupted, but still there is a descent to the Chanel or deepest part, and this in the deep Ocean is fathomless; And such a deep Ocean, and such a deep Chanel there is always between Continents. This, I think, is a property as determinate as any we can pitch upon in the Chanel of the Sea, and with those other two mentioned, its vast Cavity and universal irregularity, is all one can desire an account of as to the form of it; we will therefore from this ground take our rise and first measures for the Explication of the Sea-chanel.

Fig. 1 Fig. 1

Fig. 2 Fig. 2

Fig 3 Fig 3

Let us suppose then in the dissolution of the Earth when it began to fall, that it was divided only into three or four fragments, according to the number of our Continents; but those fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full breadth and expansion, or at least could not descend so fast in the middle as towards the extremities; because the Air about the edges would yield and give place easily, not having far to go to get out of the way; but the Air that was under the middle of the fragment could not without a very swift motion get from under the concave of it, and consequently its descent there would be more resisted and suspended; but the sides in the mean time would continually descend, bending the fragment with their weight, and so making it of a lesser compass and expansion than it was before: And by this means there would be an interval and distance made between the two falling fragments, and a good part of the Abysse, after their descent, would lie uncovered in the middle betwixt them; as may be seen in this Figure, where the fragments A. B. bending downwards in their extremities, separate as they go, and after they are fain leave a good space in the Abysse betwixt them, altogether uncovered; This space is the main Chanel of the great Ocean, lying betwixt two Continents; and the inclining sides shew the declivity of the Shores.

This we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth, in the first Figure ; but it may be better represented in a broader surface, as in the second Figure , where the two fragments A. B. that are to make the two opposite Continents, fall in like double Doors opening downwards, the Hinges being towards the Land on either side, so as at the bottom they leave in the middle betwixt them a deep Chanel of water, a. a. a. such as is betwixt all Continents; and the Water reaching a good height upon the Land on either side, makes Sea there too, but shallower, and by degrees you descend into the deepest Chanel.

This gives an account of two things that we mentioned to be considered and explained as to the Sea, how the great Cavity of its Chanel was made, and how it was made in that general form of declivity in its sides from the Land: The third thing was the irregularities of it, both as to its various depths, and as to the form of the shores and of the bottom. And this is as easily and naturally explained from the same supposition as the former two; for though we have hitherto represented the fragments A. B. as even and regular after their fall, because that was most simple, and there was no occasion then to represent them otherwise, yet we must suppose that as soon as in their fall they hit upon the top or bottom of the Abysse, that great force and weight with which they descended broke off all the Edges and extremities, and so made innumerable ruptures and inequalities in the shores, and as many within the Sea and at the bottom; where the broken Rocks and lumps of Earth would lie in all imaginable disorder; as you may conceive from the third Figure . For when the motion came on a sudden to be obstructed, the load of the fragment still pressing it forwards, such a concussion arise as made thousands of lesser fragments, of all shapes and magnitudes, and in all postures and forms, and most of them irregular. And by these fractions and secondary ruines the line of the shores was broken, and the level of them too; In some places they would stand high, in others low, sometimes rough and sometimes even, and generally crooked, with Angles and in-lets, and uncertain windings. The bottom also, by the same stroke, was diversified into all manner of forms, sometimes Rocky with Pits and Gulfs, and sometimes spread in plain beds, sometimes shallow and sometimes deep; for those differences would depend only upon the situation of the secondary fragments; and so it might come to pass, that some places near the shore might be excessive deep when a Rock or Rocks stood in a steep posture, as (Figure 3. ) b. b. b. and, on the contrary, sometimes places much more advanced into the Ocean, might be less deep, where a fragment of Earth lay under water, or one bore up another, as c. c. c. but these cases would not be very frequent. To conclude, there are no properties of the Sea-chanel, that I know of, nor differences or irregularities in the form of it, which this Hypothesisdoth not give a fair account of: And having thus far opened the way, and laid down the general grounds for their Explication, other things that are more minute, we leave to the curiosity of particular Genius's; being unwilling to clog the Theory at first with things that may seem unnecessary. We proceed now to the consideration of Islands.

We must in the first place distinguish between OriginalIslands and FactitiousIslands; Those I call factitious, that are not of the same date and Antiquity with the Sea, but have been made some at one time, some at another, by accidental causes, as the aggestion of Sands and Sand-beds, or the Sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high, and yet flowing about the lower skirts of them; These make sandy and plain Islands, that have no high Land in them, and are but mock-Islands in effect. Others are made by divulsion from some Continent, when an Isthmus or the neck of a Promontory running into the Sea, sinks or falls in, by an Earthquake or otherwise, and the Sea entring in at the gap passeth through, and makes that Promontory or Country become an Island. Thus the Island Sicilyis supposed to have been made, and all Africamight be an Island, if the Isthmus between the Mediterraneanand the red Sea should sink down. And these Islands may have Rocks and Mountains in them, if the Land had so before. Lastly, there are Islands that have been said to rise from the bottom of the Sea; History mentions such in both the Archipelago's, Ægæanand Indian; and this seems to argue that there are great fragments or tracts of Earth that lie loose at the bottom of the Sea, or that are not incorporated with the ground; which agrees very well with our Explication of the Sea-chanel.

But besides these Islands and the several sorts of them, there are others which I call Original; because they could not be produced in any of the forementioned ways, but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Chanel of the Sea; and such are the generality of our Islands; They were not made of heaps of Sands, nor torn from any Continent, but are as ancient as the Continents themselves, namely, ever since the Deluge, the common Parent of them both. Nor is there any difficulty to understand how Islands were made at the dissolution of the Earth, any more than how Continents were made; for Islands are but lesser Continents, or Continents greater Islands; and according as Continents were made of greater masses of Earth or greater fragments standing above the Water, so Islands were made of less, but so big always, and in such a posture, as to bear their tops above the water. Yet though they agree thus far, there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their Origin; for the Continents were made of those three or four primary masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided, but the Islands were made of the fractures of these, and broken off by the fall from the skirts and extremities of the Continents; We noted before, that when those great masses and primary fragments came to dash upon the Abysse in their fall, the sudden stop of the motion, and the weighty bulk of the descending fragment broke off all the edges and extremities of it, which edges and extremities broken off made the Islands; And accordingly we see that they generally lie scattered along the sides of the Continents, and are but splinters, as it were, of those greater bodies. ’Tis true, besides these, there were an infinite number of other pieces broke off that do not appear, some making Rocks under water, some shallows and banks in the Sea; but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another, or in such a posture as to prop up one another, their heads and higher parts would stand out of the water and make Islands.

Thus I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produced; we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous, or far more numerous than the Continents; These are the Parents, and those are the Children; Nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the Continents several Islands or sets of Islands, sown, as it were, by handfuls, or laid in trains; for the manner of their generation would lead us to think they would be so placed. So the AmericanIslands lie scattered upon the Coast of that Continent; the Maldivianand Philipineupon the East-Indianshore, and the Hesperidesupon the Africk; and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the Ocean, though, by an accident, that also might come to pass. Lastly, it suits very well with out Explication, that there should be Mountains and Rocks, sometimes in clusters, sometimes in long chains, in all Islands; (as we find there are in all that are true and Original) for ’tis that makes them high enough to appear above the water, and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high situation.

And thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the causes of the Sea-chanel and Islands, according to our Hypothesis.

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter IX

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER IX

The Second Part of this Discourse, proving the same Theory from the Effects and present Form of the Earth. First, by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe, and then by a more particular Induction; beginning with an Account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters.

WE have now finisht our explication of the Universal Deluge, and given an account, not only of the possibility of it, but of its Causes; and of that form and structure of the Earth, whereby the Old Worldwas subject to that sort of Fate. We have not beged any Principles or Suppositions for the proof of this, but taking that common ground, which both Mosesand all Antiquity presents to us, viz. That this Earth rose from a Chaos; We have from that deduced, by an easie train of consequences, what the first Form of it would be; and from that Form, as from a nearer ground, we have by a second train of consequences made it appear, that at some time or other that first Earth would be subject to a dissolution, and by that dissolution to a Deluge. And thus far we have proceeded only by the intuition of causes, as is most proper to a Theory; but for the satisfaction of those that require more sensible arguments, and to compleat our proofs on either hand, we will now argue from the Effects; And from the present state of Nature, and the present form of the Earth, Evidence that it hath been broken, and undergone such a dissolution as we have already described, and made the immediate occasion of the Deluge. And that we may do this more perspicuously and distinctly, we will lay down this Proposition to be Evidenced, viz. That the present form and structure of the Earth, both as to the surface and as to the Interiour parts of it, so far as they are known and accessible to us, doth exactly answer to our Theory concerning the form and dissolution of the first Earth, and cannot be explained upon any other Hypothesis.

Oratours and Philosophers treat Nature after a very different manner; Those represent her with all her graces and ornaments, and if there be any thing that is not capable of that, they dissemble it, or pass it over slightly. But Philosophers view Nature with a more impartial eye, and without favour or prejudice give a just and free account, how they find all the parts of the Universe, some more, some less perfect. And as to this Earth in particular, if I was to describe it as an Oratour, I would suppose it a beautiful and regular Globe, and not only so, but that the whole Universe was made for its sake; that it was the darling and favourite of Heaven, that the Sun shined only to give it light, to ripen its Fruit, and make fresh its Flowers; And that the great Concave of the Firmament, and all the Stars in their several Orbs, were designed only for a spangled Cabinet to keep this Jewel in. This IdeaI would give of it as an Oratour; But a Philosopher that overheard me, would either think me in jest, or very injudicious, if I took the Earth for a body so regular in it self, or so considerable, if compared with the rest of the Universe. This, he would say, is to make the great World like one of the Heathen Temples, a beautiful and magnificent structure, and of the richest materials, yet built only for a little brute Idol, a Dog, or a Crocodile, or some deformed Creature, placed in a corner of it.

We must therefore be impartial where the Truth requires it, and describe the Earth as it is really in it self; and though it be handsome and regular enough to the eye in certain parts of it, single tracts and single Regions; yet if we consider the whole surface of it, or the whole Exteriour Region, ’tis as a broken and confused heap of bodies, placed in no order to one another, nor with any correspondency or regularity of parts: And such a body as the Moon appears to us, when ’tis looked upon with a good Glass, rude and ragged; as it is also represented in the modern Maps of the Moon; such a thing would the Earth appear if it was seen from the Moon. They are both in my judgment the image or picture of a great Ruine, and have the true aspect of a World lying in its rubbish.

Our Earth is first divided into Sea and Land, without any regularity in the portions, either of the one or the other; In the Sea lie the Islands, scattered like limbs torn from the rest of the body; great Rocks stand reared up in the waters; The Promontories and Capes shoot into the Sea, and the Sinus's and Creeks on the other hand run as much into the Land; and these without any order or uniformity. Upon the other part of our Globe stand great heaps of Earth or stone, which we call Mountains; and if these were all placed together, they would take up a very considerable part of the dry Land; In the rest of it are lesser Hills, Valleys, Plains, Lakes, and Marishes, Sands and Desarts, &c. and these also without any regular disposition. Then the inside of the Earth, or inward parts of it, are generally broken or hollow, especially about the Mountains and high Lands, as also towards the shores of the Sea, and among the Rocks. How many Holes and Caverns, and strange Subterraneous passages do we see in many Countries; and how many more may we easily imagine, that are unknown and unaccessible to us?

This is the pourtraicture of our Earth, drawn without flattery; and as oddly as it looks, it will not be at all surprizing to one that hath considered the foregoing Theory; For ’tis manifest enough, that upon the dissolution of the first Earth, and its fall in to the Abysse, this very face and posture of things, which we have now described, or something extreamly like it, would immediately result. The Sea would be opened, and the face of the Globe would be divided into Land and Water: And according as the fragments fell, some would make Islands or Rocks in the Sea, others would make Mountains or Plains upon the Land; and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesses, especially in the Mountainous parts of it. And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines, when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water; or which is more obvious, when the Arch of a Bridge is broken, and falls into the water, if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts, you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents, and Islands, and Rocks under water: And in the parts that stand above the water, you may see Mountains, and Precipices, and Plains, and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth. What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things? Let us suppose this Arch as the great Arch of the Earth, which once it had, and the water under it as the Abysse, and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth; There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater, the same things appearing in both. But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice, that we think great things are not to be explained from easie and familiar instances; We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them, or else we are not satisfied; whether it is that we are ashamed to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless, or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication, and the greatness of the thing explained; but that is a very false Judgment, for let things be never so great, if they be simple, their explication must be simple and easie; And on the contrary, some things that are mean, common, and ordinary, may depend upon causes very difficult to find out; for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness, but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes. And the effects and Phænomenawe are here to explain, though great, yet depending upon causes very simple, you must not wonder if the Explication, when found out, be familiar and very intelligible.

And this is so intelligible, and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes, that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave, that had never seen the face of the Earth, nor ever heard any description of it, more than that it was a great Globe, having this Theory proposed to him, or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was, how it stood over the waters, and then how it was broke and fell into them, he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution; and what the new form of the Earth would be. As in the first place he would tell you, that this second Earth would be distinguished and checkered into Land and Water; for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon, all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drowned under water; and those that stood above, would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth. Then in the second place, he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land, could not lie all plain and smooth and equal, but some would be higher and some lower, some in one posture and some in another, and consequently would make Mountains, Hills, Valleys, and Plains, and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth. And lastly, a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it, a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish, as I may so say; for this we see happens in all ruines more or less; and where the fragments are great and hard, ’tis not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall, but that they would lie hollow in many places, and many unfilled spaces would be intercepted amongst them; some gaping in the surface of the Earth, and others hid within; so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth, or within its body. And these Cavities, that I may add that in the last place, would be often filled with Subterraneous waters, at least at such a depth; for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters, so high as those waters reached they would more or less propagate themselves every way.

Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the new World would be, or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution; and we find his reasonings and inferences very true, these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth; which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves, but if we look upon them through this Theory, we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them. There are different Genius's of men, and different conceptions, and every one is to be allowed their liberty as to things of this nature; I confess, for my own part, when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesisdoth apply it self to all the particularities of this Earth, hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of its parts, I cannot, without violence, bear off my mind from fully assenting to it: And the more odd and extravagant, as I may so say, and the more diversified the effects and appearances are, to which an Hypothesisis to be applied, if it answers them all and with exactness, it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility. As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship, many Wards, and many odd pieces and contrivances, if you find a Key that answers to them all, and opens it readily, ’tis a thousand to one that ’tis the true Key, and was made for that purpose.

An eminent Philosopher of this Age, Monsieur des Cartes, hath made use of the like Hypothesisto explain the irregular form of the present Earth; though he never dreamed of the Deluge, nor thought that first Orb built over the Abysse, to have been any more than a transient crust, and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years, as we suppose it to have been. And though he hath, in my opinion, in the formation of that first Orb, and upon the dissolution of it, committed some great oversights, whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing, and of the disruption of it, to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it.

Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth, and the easie account it gives of the causes of it. And though I believe to ingenuous persons that are not prejudiced by the forms and opinions of the Schools against every thing that looks like a novelty or invention, thus much might be sufficient; yet for the satisfaction of all, we will, as a farther proof of our Theory, or that part of it which concerns the dissolution of the Earth, descend to a particular explication of three or four of the most considerable and remarkable things that occur in the fabrick of this present Earth; namely, the great Chanel of the Ocean; Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters;and lastly, Mountains and Rocks. These are the wonders of the Earth as to the visible frame of it; and who would not be pleased to see a rational account of these? of their Origin, and of their properties; Or who would not apEvidence of that Hypothesis, when they see that Nature in her greatest and strangest works may easily be understood by it, and is in no other way intelligible.

We will speak first of Subterraneous Cavities and Waters, because they will be of easier dispatch, and an introduction to the rest.

That the inside of the Earth is hollow and broken in many places, and is not one firm and united mass, we have both the Testimony of Sence and of easie Observations to Evidence: How many Caves and Dens and hollow passages into the ground do we see in many Countries, especially amongst Mountains and Rocks; and some of them endless and bottomless so far as can be discovered. We have many of these in our own Island, in Derbishire, Somersetshire, Wales, and other Counties, and in every Continent or Island they abound more or less. These hollownesses of the Earth the Ancients made prisons, or storehouses for the winds, and set a God over them to confine them, or let them loose at his pleasure. For some Ages after the Flood, as all Antiquity tells us, These were the first houses men had, at least in some parts of the Earth; here rude mortals sheltered themselves, as well as they could, from the injuries of the Air, till they were beaten out by wild beasts that took possession of them. The Ancient Oracles also used to be given out of these Vaults and recesses under ground, the Sibylshad their Caves, and the DelphickOracle, and their Temples sometimes were built upon an hollow Rock. Places that are strange and solemn strike an awe into us, and incline us to a kind of superstitious timidity and veneration, and therefore they thought them fit for the seats and residences of their Deities. They fansied also that streams rise sometimes, or a sort of Vapour in those hollow places, that gave a kind of Divine fury or inspiration. But all these uses and employments are now in a great measure worn out, we know no use of them but to make the places talkt on where they are, to be the wonders of the Countrey, to please our curiosity to gaze upon and admire; but we know not how they came, nor to what purpose they were made at first.

It would be very pleasant to read good descriptions of these Subterraneous places, and of all the strange works of Nature there; how she furnisheth these dark neglected Grottoes; they have often a little Brook runs murmuring through them, and the roof is commonly a kind of petrefied Earth or Icy fret-work; proper enough for such rooms. But I should be pleased especially to view the Sea-caves, or those hollow Rocks that lie upon the Sea, where the waves roll in a great way under ground, and wear the hard Rock into as many odd shapes and figures as we see in the Clouds. ’Tis pleasant also to see a River in the middle of its course throw it self into the mouth of a Cave, or an opening of the Earth, and run under ground sometimes many miles; still pursuing its way through the dark pipes of the Earth, till at last it find an out-let. There are many of these Rivers taken notice of in History in the several parts of the Earth, as the Rhonein France, Guadianain Spain, and several in Greece, Alpheus, Lycus, and Eracinus; then Nigerin Africa, Tigrisin Asia, &c. And I believe if we could turn Derwent, or any other River into one of the holes of the Peak, it would groap its way till it found an issue, it may be in some other County. These subterraneous Rivers that emerge again, shew us that the holes of the Earth are longer and reach farther than we imagine, and if we could see into the ground, as we ride or walk, we should be affrighted to see so often Waters or Caverns under us.

But to return to our dry Caves; these commonly stand high, and are sometimes of a prodigious greatness: Strabo mentions some in the Mountains towards Arabia, that are capable to receive four thousand men at once. The Cave of Engedihid Davidand six hundred men, so as Saul, when he was in the mouth of it, did not perceive them. In the Mountains of the Traconitesthere are many of these vast dens and recesses, and the people of that Country defended themselves a long time in those strong Holds against Herodand his Army; They are placed among such craggy Rocks and Precipices, that, as Josephus ells us, Herodwas forc’t to make a fort of open chests, and in those by chains of Iron he let down his Souldiers from the top of the Mountains to go fight them in their dens. I need add no more instances of this kind; In the Natural History of all Countries, or the Geographical descriptions of them, you find such places taken notice of, more or less; yet if there was a good collection made of the chief of them in several parts, it might be of use, and would make us more sensible how broken and torn the body of the Earth is.

There are subterraneous Cavities of another nature, and more remarkable, which they call Volcano's, or fiery Mountains; that belch out flames and smoke and ashes, and sometimes great stones and broken Rocks, and lumps of Earth, or some metallick mixture; and throw them to an incredible distance by the force of the eruption. These argue great vacuities in the bowels of the Earth, and magazines of combustible matter treasured up in them. And as the Exhalations within these places must be copious, so they must lie in long Mines or Trains to do so great execution, and to last so long. ’Tis scarce credible what is reported concerning some eruptions of Vesuviusand Ætna. The Eruptions of Vesuviusseem to be more frequent and less violent of late; The flame and smoke break out at the top of the Mountain, where they have eaten away the ground and made a great hollow, so as it looks at the top, when you stand upon the brims of it, like an Amphitheater, or like a great Caldron, about a mile in circumference, and the burning Furnace lies under it. The outside of the Mountain is all spread with Ashes, but the inside much more; for you wade up to the mid-leg in Ashes to go down to the bottom of the Cavity, and ’tis extreamly heavy and troublesome to get up again. The inside lies sloping, and one may safely go down if it be not in a raging fit; but the middle part of it or center, which is a little raised like the bottom of a Platter, is not to be ventured upon, the ground there lies false and hollow, there it always smoaks, and there the Funnel is supposed to be; yet there is no visible hole or gaping any where when it doth not rage. Naplesstands below in fear of this fiery Mountain, which hath often covered its Streets and Palaces with its Ashes; and in sight of the Sea (which lies by the side of them both) and as it were in defiance to it, threatens at one time or another, to burn that fair City. History tells us, that some eruptions of Vesuviushave carried Cinders and Ashes as far as Constantinople; this is attested both by Greekand LatinAuthors; particularly, that they were so affrighted with these Ashes and darkness, that the Emperor left the City, and there was a day observed yearly for a memorial of this calamity or prodigy.

Ætnais of greater fame than Vesuvius, and of greater fury, all Antiquity speaks of it; not only the Greeksand Romans, but as far as History reacheth, either real or fabulous, there is something recorded of the Fires of Ætna. The Figure of the Mountain is inconstant, by reason of the great consumptions and ruines it is subject to; The Fires and Æstuations of it are excellently described by Virgil, upon occasion of Æneashis passing by those Coasts.

------Horrificis juxta tonat Ætnaruinis;
Interdumque atram prorumpit ad æthera nubem,
Turbine fumantem piceo & candente favillâ;
Attollitque globos flammarum & sydera lambit;
Interdum scopulos, avolsáque viscera Montis
Erigit eructans, liquefactáque saxa sub auras
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundóque exæstuat imo.

Fama est Enceladisemustum fulmine corpus
Urgeri mole hâc, ingentémque insuper Ætnam
Impositam, ruptis flammam expirare caminis.
Et fessum quoties mutet latus, intremere omnem
Murmure Trinacriam& cœlum subtexere fumo.

------Ætna, whose ruines make a thunder;
Sometimes black clouds of smoak, that rowl about
Mingled with flakes of fire, it belches out.
And sometimes Balls of flame it darts on high,
Or its torn bowels flings into the Sky.
Within deep Cells under the Earth, a store
Of fire-materials, molten Stones, and Ore,
It gathers, then spews out, and gathers more.

Enceladuswhen thunder-struck by Jove,
Was buried here, and Ætnathrown above;
And when, to change his wearied side, he turns,
The Island trembles and the Mountain burns.

Not far from Ætnalies Strombolo, and other adjacent Islands, where there are also such magazines of Fire; and throughout all Regions and Countries in the West-Indies and in the East, in the Northern and Southern parts of the Earth, there are some of these Volcano's, which are sensible evidences that the Earth is incompact and full of Caverns; besides the roarings, and bellowings that use to be heard before an eruption of these Volcano's, argue some dreadful hollowness in the belly or under the roots of the Mountain, where the Exhalations struggle before they can break their prison.

The subterraneous Cavities that we have spoke of hitherto, are such as are visible in the surface of the Earth, and break the skin by some gaping Orifice; but the Miners and those that work under ground, meet with many more in the bowels of the Earth, that never reach to the top of it: Burrows, and Chanels, and Clefts, and Caverns, that never had the comfort of one beam of light since the great fall of the Earth. And where we think the ground is firm and solid, as upon Heaths and Downs, it often betrays its hollowness, by sounding under the Horses feet and the Chariot-wheels that pass over it. We do not know when and where we stand upon good ground, if it was examined deep enough; and to make us further sensible of this, we will instance in two things that argue the unsoundness and hollowness of the Earth in the inward recesses of it, though the surface be intire and unbroken; These are Earthquakesand the communication of Subterraneous waters and Seas: Of which two we will speak a little more particularly.

Earthquakes are too evident demonstrations of the hollowness of the Earth, being the dreadful effects or consequences of it; for if the body of the Earth was sound and compact, there would be no such thing in Nature as an Earthquake. They are commonly accompanied with an heavy dead sound, like a dull thunder, which ariseth from the Vapours that are striving in the womb of Nature when her throes are coming upon her. And that these Caverns where the Vapours lie are very large and capacious, we are taught sometimes by sad experience; for whole Cities and Countries have been swallowed up into them, as Sodomand Gomorrha, and the Region of Pentapolis, and several Cities in Greece, and in Asia, and other parts. Whole Islands also have been thus absorpt in an Earthquake; the pillars and props they stood upon being broken, they have sunk and faln in as an house blown up. I am also of opinion that those Islands that are made by divulsion from a Continent, as Sicilywas broken off from Italy, and Great Britain, as some think, from France, have been made the same way; that is, the Isthmus or necks of Land that joyned these Islands with their Continents before, have been hollow, and being either worn by the water, or shaked by an Earthquake, have sunk down, and so made way for the Sea to overflow them, and of a Promontory to make an Island. For it is not at all likely that the neck of Land continued standing, and the Sea overflowed it, and so made an Island; for then all those passages between such Islands, and their respective Continents would be extreamly shallow and unnavigable, which we do not find them to be. Nor is it any more wonder if such a neck of Land should fall, than that a Mountain should sink, or any other tract of Land, and a Lake rise in its place, which hath often happened. Platosupposeth his Atlantisto have been greater than Asiaand Africatogether, and yet to have sunk all into the Sea; whether that be true or no, I do not think it impossible that some arms of the Sea or Sinus's might have had such an original as that; and I am very apt to think, that for some years after the Deluge, till the fragments were well setled and adjusted, great alterations would happen as to the face of the Sea and the Land; many of the fragments would change their posture, and many would sink into the water that stood out before, the props failing that bore them up, or the joynts and corners whereby they leaned upon one another; and thereupon a new face of things would arise, and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth. Such removes and interchanges, I believe, would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood; as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first, till the parts be so well poised and setled, that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more.

But to return to our Earthquakes, and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence: Plinymentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Cæsarthat struck down twelve Cities of Asiain one night, And Fourniergives us an account of one in Peru, that reacht three hundred leagues along the Sea-shore, and seventy leagues in-land; and leveled the Mountains all along as it went, threw down the Cities, turned the Rivers out of their Chanels, and made an universal havock and confusion; And all this, he saith, was done within the space of seven or eight minutes.

There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent, that gave passage to the Vapours, and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length, and above two hundred in breadth. Asiaalso hath been very subject to these desolations by Earthquakes; and many parts in Europe, as Greece, Italy, and others. The truth is, our Cities are built upon ruines, and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults, and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the Earth, and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken; there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines, or Cavernous passages, that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation; and, upon such occasions, requiring more room, they shake or break the ground that covers them. And thus much concerning Earthquakes.

A second observation that argues the hollowness of the Earth, is the communication of the Seas and Lakes under ground. The Caspianand MediterraneanSeas, and several Lakes, receive into them great Rivers, and yet have no visible out-let: These must have subterraneous out-lets, by which they empty themselves, otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their Vessel. The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind, because ’tis observed that at one end the great Ocean flows into it through the straits of Gibralter, with a sensible current, and towards the other end about Constantinoplethe Pontusflows down into it with a stream so strong, that Vessels have much ado to stem it; and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let, nor overflows its banks. And besides that it is thus fed at either end, it is fed by the navel too, as I may so say; it sucks in, by their Chanels, several Rivers into its belly, whereof the Nileis one very great and considerable. These things have made it a great Problem, What becomes of the water of the Mediterranean Sea?And for my part, I think, the solution is very easie, namely, that it is discharged by Subterraneous passages, or conveyed by Chanels under the ground into the Ocean. And this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean, but is common to it with the CaspianSea, and other Seas and Lakes, that receive great Rivers into them, and have no visible issue.

I know there have been proposed several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the efflux or consumption of the waters of the Mediterranean; some have supposed a double current in the strait of Gibralter, one that carried the water in, and another that brought it out; like the Arteries and Veins in our Body, the one exporting our bloud from the heart, and the other re-importing it: So they supposed one current upon the surface, which carried the water into the Mediterranean, and under it at a certain depth a counter-current, which brought the water back into the Ocean. But this hath neither proof nor foundation; for unless it was included in pipes, as our bloud is, or consisted of liquors very different, these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another. Others are of opinion, that all the water that flows into the Mediterranean, or a quantity equal to it, is consumed in Exhalations every day; This seems to be a bolder supposition than the other, for if so much be consumed in Vapours and Exhalations every day as flows into this Sea, what if this Sea had an out-let, and discharged by that, every day, as much as it received; in a few days the Vapours would have consumed all the rest; and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let, and are not consumed, or sensibly diminisht by the Vapours. Besides, this reason is a Summer-reason, and would pass very ill in Winter, when the heat of the Sun is much less powerful: At least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in Summer and Winter, if so much was consumed every day as this Explication supposeth. And the truth is, this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the MediterraneanSea, as we noted before, but is also in other Seas and great Lakes, some lying in one Climat and some in another, where there is no reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations; And though ’tis true some Rivers in Africk, and in other parts of the Earth, are thus exhaled and dried up, without ever flowing into the Sea (as were all the Rivers in the first Earth) yet this is where the sands and parched ground suck up a great part of them; the heat of the Climat being excessively strong, and the Chanel of the River growing shallower by degrees, and, it may be, divided into lesser branches and rivulets; which are causes that take no place here. And therefore we must return to our first reason, which is universal, for all seasons of the Year and all Climats; and seeing we are assured that there are Subterraneous Chanels and passages, for Rivers often fall into the ground, and sometimes rise again, and sometimes never return; why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause? Nay, I believe the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by Subterraneous out-lets; for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth, it must have out-lets proportionable; and those Syrtesor great Whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or Sinus's of the Sea, as upon the Coast of Norwayand of Italy, arise probably from Subterraneous out-lets in those places, whereby the water sinks, and turns, and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass; and if there was no issue at the bottom, though it might by contrary currents turn things round, within its Sphere, yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom. Neither does it seem improbable, that the currents of the Sea are from these in-draughts, and that there is always a submarine inlet in some part of them, to make a circulation of the Waters. But thus much for the Subterraneous communication of Seas and Lakes.

And thus much in general concerning subterraneous Cavities, and concerning the hollow and broken frame of the Earth. If I had now magick enough to show you at one view all the inside of the Earth, which we have imperfectly described; if we could go under the roots of the Mountains, and into the sides of the broken rocks; or could dive into the Earth with one of those Rivers that sink under ground, and follow its course and all its windings till it rise again, or led us to the Sea, we should have a much stronger and more effectual Ideaof the broken form of the Earth, than any we can excite by these faint descriptions collected - from Reason. The Ancients I remember used to represent these hollow Caves and Subterraneous Regions in the nature of a Worldunder-ground, and supposed it inhabited by the Nymphs, especially the Nymphsof the waters and the Sea-Goddesses; so Orpheussung of old; and in imitation of him Virgilhath made a description of those Regions; feigning the Nymph Cyreneto send for her son to come down to her, and made her a visit in those shades where mortals were not admitted.

Duc age, duc ad nos, fas illi limina Divûm
Tangere, ait: Simul alta jubet discedere latè
Flumina, quà juvenis gressus inferret, at ilium
Curvata in montis faciem circumstitit unda,
Accepítque sinu vasto, misítque sub amnem.
Jámque domum mirans Genetricis & humida regna,
Speluncísque lacos clausos, lucósque sonantes,
Ibat, & ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum
Omnia sub magnâ labentia flumina terrâ
Spectabat diversa locis; Phasímque Licúmque, &c.
Et Thalami matris pendentia pumice tecta, &c.

Come lead the Youth below, bring him to me,
The Gods are pleas'd our Mansions he should see;
Streight she commands the floods to make him way,
They open their wide bosom and obey;
Soft is the path, and easie is his tread,
A watry Arch bends o’er his dewy head;
And as he goes he wonders, and looks round,
To see this new-found Kingdom under ground.
The silent Lakes in hollow Caves he sees,
And on their banks an echoing grove of Trees;
The fall of waters ’mongst the Rocks below
He hears, and sees the Rivers how they flow:
All the great Rivers of the Earth are there,
Prepar'd, as in a womb, by Nature's care.
Last, to his mother's bed-chamber he's brought,
Where the high roof with Pumice-stone is wrought, &c.

If we now could open the Earth as this Nymphdid the Water, and go down into the bosom of it, see all the dark Chambers and Apartments there, how ill contrived, and how ill kept, so many holes and corners, some filled with smoak and fire, some with water, and some with vapours and mouldy Air; how like a ruine it lies gaping and torn in the parts of it; we should not easily believe that God created it into this form immediately out of nothing; It would have cost no more to have made things in better order; nay, it had been more easie and more simple; and accordingly we are assured that all things were made at first in Beauty and proportion. And if we consider Nature and the manner of the first formation of the Earth, ’tis evident that there could be no such holes and Caverns, nor broken pieces, made then in the body of it; for the grosser parts of the Chaos falling down towards the Center, they would there compose a mass of Earth uniform and compact, the water swimming above it; and this first mass under the water could have no Caverns or vacuities in it; for if it had had any, the Earthy parts, while the mass was liquid or semiliquid, would have sunk into them and filled them up, expelling the Air or Water that was there; And when afterwards there came to be a crust or new Earth formed upon the face of the Waters, there could be no Cavities, no dens, no fragments in it, no more than in the other; And for the same general reason, that is, passing from a liquid form into a concrete or solid leisurely and by degrees, it would flow and settle together in an entire mass; There being nothing broken, nor any thing hard, to bear the parts off from one another, or to intercept any empty spaces between them.

’Tis manifest then that the Earth could not be in this Cavernous form originally, by any work of nature; nor by any immediate action of God, seeing there is neither use nor beauty in this kind of construction: Do we not then, as reasonably, as aptly, ascribe it to that desolation that was brought upon the Earth in the general Deluge? When its outward frame was dissolved and fell into the great Abysse: How easily doth this answer all that we have observed concerning the Subterraneous Regions? That hollow and broken posture of things under ground, all those Caves and holes, and blind recesses, that are otherwise so inaccountable, say but that they are a Ruine, and you have in one word explained them all. For there is no sort of Cavities, interior or exterior, great or little, open or shut, wet or dry, of what form or fashion soever, but we might reasonably expect them in a ruine of that nature. And as for the Subterraneous waters, seeing the Earth fell into the Abysse, the pillars and foundations of the present (exteriour) Earth must stand immersed in water, and therefore at such a depth from the surface every where, there must be water found, if the soil be of a nature to admit it. ’Tis true, all Subterraneous waters do not proceed from this original, for many of them are the effects of Rains and melted Snows sunk into the Earth; but that in digging any where you constantly come to water at length, even in the most solid ground this cannot proceed from these Rains or Snows, but must come from below, and from a cause as general as the effect is; which can be no other in my judgment than this, that the roots of the exteriour Earth stand within the old Abysse, whereof, as a great part lies open in the Sea, so the rest lies hid and covered among the fragments of the Earth; sometimes dispersed and only moistning the parts, as our bloud lies in the flesh, and in the habit of the body; sometimes in greater or lesser masses, as the bloud in our Vessels. And this I take to be the true account of Subterraneous waters as distinguished from Fountains and Rivers, and from the matter and causes of them.

Thus much we have spoke to give a general Ideaof the inward parts of the Earth, and an easie Explication of them by our Hypothesis; which whether it be true or no, if you compare it impartially with Nature, you will confess at least, that all these things are just in such a form and posture as if it was true.

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter VIII

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VIII

The particular History ofNoah's Flood is explained in all the material parts and circumstances of it, according to the preceding Theory. Any seeming difficulties removed, and the whole Section concluded, with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary Providence, and how far of an extraordinary.

WE have now Evidenced our Explication of the Deluge to be more than an Idea, or to be a true piece of Natural History; and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the World. We have shown it to be the real account of Noah's Flood, according to Authority both Divine and Humane; and I would willingly proceed one step further, and declare my thoughts concerning the manner and order wherein Noah's Flood came to pass; in what method all those things happened and succeeded one another, that make up the History of it, as causes or effects, or other parts or circumstances: As how the Ark was born upon the waters, what effect the Rains had, at what time the Earth broke, and the Abysse was opened; and what the condition of the Earth was upon the ending of the Flood, and such like. But I desire to propose my thoughts concerning these things only as conjectures, which I will ground as near as I can upon Scripture and Reason, and am very willing they should be rectified where they happen to be amiss. I know how subject we are to mistakes in these great and remote things, when we descend to particulars; but I am willing to expose the Theory to a full trial, and to shew the way for any to examine it, provided they do it with equity and sincerity. I have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance, and wherein the World hath hitherto had so little satisfaction: And he that in an obscure argument proposeth an Hypothesisthat reacheth from end to end, though it be not exact in every particular, tis not without a good effect; for it gives aim to others to take their measures better, and opens their invention in a matter which otherwise, it may be, would have been impenetrable to them: As he that makes the first way through a thick Forest, though it be not the streightest and shortest, deserves better, and hath done more, than he that makes it streighter and smoother afterwards.

Providence that ruleth all things and all Ages, after the Earth had stood above sixteen hundred Years, thought fit to put a period to that World, and accordingly, it was revealed to Noah, that for the wickedness and degeneracy of men, God would destroy mankind with the Earth(Gen. 6. 13) in a Deluge of water; where-upon he was commanded, in order to the preserving of Himself and Family, as a stock for the new World, to build a great Vessel or Ark, to float upon the waters, and had instructions given him for the building of it both as to the matter and as to the form. Noah believed the word of God, though against his senses, and all external appearances, and set himself to work to build an Ark, according to the directions given, which after many years labour was finished; whilst the incredulous World, secure enough, as they thought, against a Deluge, continued still in their excesses and insolencies, and laught at the admonition of Noah, and at the folly of his design of building an extravagant machine, a floating house, to save himself from an imaginary Inundation; for they thought it no less, seeing it was to be in an Earth where there was no Sea, nor any Rain neither in those parts, according to the ordinary course of Nature; as shall be shown in the second Book of this Treatise.

But when the appointed time was come, the Heavens began to melt, and the Rains to fall, and these were the first surprizing causes and preparatives to the Deluge; They fell, we suppose, throughout the face of the whole Earth; which could not but have a considerable effect on that Earth, being even and smooth, without Hills and eminencies, and might lay it all under water to some depth; so as the Ark, if it could not float upon those Rain-waters, at least taking the advantage of a River, or of a Dock or Cistern made to receive them, it might be a-float before the Abysse was broken open. For I do not suppose the Abysse broken open before any rain fell; And when the opening of the Abysse and of the Flood-gates of Heaven are mentioned together, I am apt to think those Flood-gates were distinct from the common rain, and were something more violent and impetuous. So that there might be preparatory Rains before the disruption of the Abysse: and I do not know but those Rains, so covering up and enclosing the Earth on every side, might providentially contribute to the disruption of it; not only by softning and weakning the Arch of the Earth in the bottom of those cracks and Chasms which were made by the Sun, and which the Rain would first run into, but especially by stopping on a sudden all the pores of the Earth, and all evaporation, which would make the Vapours within struggle more violently, as we get a Fever by a Cold; and it may be in that struggle, the Doors and the Bars were broke, and the great Abysse gusht out, as out of a womb.

However, when the Rains were faln, we may suppose the face of the Earth covered over with water; and whether it was these waters that St. Peterrefers to, or that of the Abysse afterwards, I cannot tell, when he saith in his first Epistle, Chap. 3. 20. Noahand his Family were saved by water; so as the water which destroyed the rest of the World, was an instrument of their conservation, in as much as it bore up the Ark, and kept it from that impetuous shock, which it would have had, if either it had stood upon dry land when the Earth fell, or if the Earth had been dissolved without any water on it or under it. However, things being thus prepared, let us suppose the great frame of the exteriour Earth to have broke at this time, or the Fountains of the great Abysse, as Mosessaith, to have been then opened, from thence would issue, upon the fall of the Earth, with an unspeakable violence, such a Flood of waters as would over-run and overwhelm for a time all those fragments which the Earth broke into, and bury in one common Grave all Mankind, and all the Inhabitants of the Earth. Besides, if the Flood-gatesof Heaven were any thing distinct from the Forty days Rain, their effusion, tis likely, was at this same time when the Abysse was broken open; for the sinking of the Earth would make an extraordinary convulsion of the Regions of the Air, and that crack and noise that must be in the falling World, and in the collision of the Earth and the Abysse, would make a great and universal Concussion above, which things together, must needs so shake, or so squeeze the Atmosphere, as to bring down all the remaining Vapours; But the force of these motions not being equal throughout the whole Air, but drawing or pressing more in some places than in other, where the Center of the convulsion was, there would be the chiefest collection, and there would fall, not showers of Rain, or single drops, but great spouts or caskades of water; and this is that which Moses seems to call, not improperly, the Cataractsof Heaven, or the Windows of Heaven being set open.

Thus the Flood came to its height; and tis not easie to represent to our selves this strange Scene of things, when the Deluge was in its fury and extremity; when the Earth was broken and swallowed up in the Abysse, whose raging waters rise higher than the Mountains, and filled the Air with broken waves, with an universal mist, and with thick darkness, so as Nature seemed to be in a second Chaos; and upon this Chaos rid the distrest Ark, that bore the small remains of Mankind. No Sea was ever so tumultuous as this, nor is there any thing in present Nature to be compared with the disorder of these waters; All the Poetry, and all the Hyperboles that are used in the description of Storms and raging Seas, were literally true in this, if not beneath it. The Ark was really carried to the tops of the highest Mountains, and into the places of the Clouds, and thrown down again into the deepest Gulfs; and to this very state of the Deluge and of the Ark, which was a Type of the Church in this World, Davidseems to have alluded in the name of the Church, Psal. 42. 7. Abysse calls upon Abysse at the noise of thy Cataracts or water-spouts; all thy waves and billows have gone over me. It was no doubt an extraordinary and miraculous Providence, that could make a Vessel, so ill maned, live upon such a Sea; that kept it from being dasht against the Hills, or overwhelmed in the Deeps. That Abysse which had devoured and swallow'd up whole Forests of Woods, Cities, and Provinces, nay the whole Earth, when it had conquered all, and triumphed over all, could not destroy this single Ship. I remember in the story of the Argonauticks, when Jasonset out to fetch the Golden Fleece, the Poet saith, all the Gods that day looked down from Heaven, to view the Ship; and the Nymphsstood upon the Mountain-tops to see the noble Youth of Thessalypulling at the Oars; We may with more reason suppose the good Angels to have lookt down upon this Ship of Noah's; and that not out of curiosity, as idle spectators, but with a passionate concern for its safety and deliverance. A Ship whose Cargowas no less than a whole World; that carried the fortune and hopes of all posterity, and if this had perisht, the Earth, for any thing we know, had been nothing but a Desert, a great ruine, a dead heap of Rubbish, from the Deluge to the Conflagration. But Death and Hell, the Grave, and Destruction have their bounds. We may entertain our selves with the consideration of the face of the Deluge, and of the broken and drowned Earth, in this Scheme, with the floating Ark, and the guardian Angels.

Thus much for the beginning and progress of the Deluge. It now remains only that we consider it in its decrease, and the state of the Earth after the waters were retied into their Chanels, which makes the present state of it. Mosessaith, God brought a wind upon the waters, and the tops of the Hills became bare, and then the lower grounds and Plains by degrees; the waters being sunk into the Chanels of the Sea, and the hollowness of the Earth, and the whole Globe appearing in the form it is now under.

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Click to enlargeThere needs nothing be added for explication of this, tis the genuine consequence of the Theory we have given of the Deluge; and whether this wind was a descending wind to depress and keep down the swellings and inequalities of the Abysse, or whether it was only to dry the Land as fast as it appeared, or might have both effects, I do not know; But as nothing can be perpetual that is violent, so this commotion of the Abysse abated after a certain time, and the great force that impelled the waters, decreasing, their natural gravity began to take effect, and to reduce them into the lowest places, at an equal height, and in an even surface, and level one part with another: That is, in short, the Abysse became our Sea, fixt within its Chanel, and bounded by Rocks and Mountains: Then was the decreed place establisht for it, and Bars and Doors were set; then it was said, hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stopt. And the Deluge being thus ended, and the waters setled in their Chanels, the Earth took such a broken Figure as is represented in those larger Schemes, p. 118 . And this will be the form and state of it till its great change comes in the Conflagration, when we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth.

But to pursue this prospect of things a little further; we may easily imagine, that for many years after the Deluge ceast, the face of the Earth was very different from what it is now, and the Sea had other bounds than it hath at present. I do not doubt but the Sea reached much further in-land, and climbed higher upon the sides of the Mountains; And I have observed in many places, a ridge of Mountains some distance from the Sea, and a Plain from their roots to the shore; which Plain no doubt was formerly covered by the Sea, bounded against those Hills as its first and natural Ramparts, or as the ledges or lips of its Vessel. And it seems probable, that the Sea doth still grow narrower from Age to Age, and sinks more within its Chanel and the bowels of the Earth, according as it can make its way into all those Subterraneous Cavities, and crowd the Air out of them. We see whole Countries of Land gained from it, and by several indications, as ancient Sea-ports left dry and useless, old Sea-marks far within the Land, pieces of Ships, Anchors, &c. left at a great distance from the present shores; from these signs, and such like, we may conclude that the Sea reached many places formerly that now are dry Land, and at first I believe was generally bound on either side with a chain of Mountains. So I should easily imagine the Mediterranean Sea, for instance, to have been bounded by the continuation of the Alps through Dauphinnd Languedockto the Pyreneans, and at the other end by the DarmatickMountains almost to the Black Sea. Then Atlas majorwhich runs along with the Mediterranean from ypt to the Atlantick Ocean, and now parts Barbary and Numidia, may possibly have been the Ancient Barriere on the Africkside. And in our own Island I could easily figure to my self, in many parts of it, other Sea-bounds than what it hath at present; and the like may be observed in other Countries.

And as the Sea had much larger bounds for some time after the Deluge, so the Land had a different face in many respects to what it hath now; for we suppose the Valleys and lower grounds, where the descent and derivation of the water was not so easie, to have been full of Lakes and Pools for a long time; and these were often converted into Fens and Bogs, where the ground being spongy, suckt up the water, and the loosened Earth swelled into a soft and pappy substance; which would still continue so, if there was any course of water sensible or in-sensible, above or within the ground, that fed this moist place: But if the water stood in a more firm Basin, or on a soil which for its heaviness or any other reason would not mix with it, it made a Lake or clear Pool. And we may easily imagine there were innumerable such Lakes, and Bogs and fastnesses for many years after the Deluge, till the world begun to be pretty well stockt with people, and humane industry cleansed and drained those unfruitful and unhabitable places. And those Countries that have been later cultivated, or by a lazier people, retain still, in proportion to their situation and soil, a greater number of them.

Neither is it at all incongruous or inconvenient to suppose, that the face of the Earth stood in this manner for many years after the Deluge; for while Mankind was small and few, they needed but a little ground for their seats or sustenance; and as they grew more numerous, the Earth proportionably grew more dry, and more parts of it fit for habitation. I easily believe that Plato's observation or tradition is true, that Men at first, after the Flood, lived in the Up-lands and sides of the Mountains, and by degrees sunk into the Plains and lower Countries, when Nature had prepared them for their use, and their numbers required more room. The History of Mosestells us, that sometime after the Deluge, Noahand his posterity, his Sons and his Grand-children, changed their quarters, and fell down into the Plains of Shiner, from the sides of the Hills where the Ark had rested; and in this Plain was the last general rendezvous of Mankind; so long they seem to have kept in a body, and from thence they were divided and broken into companies, and disperst, first, into the neighbouring Countries, and then by degrees throughout the whole Earth; the several successive Generations, like the waves of the Sea when it flows, over-reaching one another, and striking out further and further, upon the face of the Land. Not that the whole Earth was peopled by an uniform propagation of Mankind every way, from one place, as a common center: like the swelling of a Lake upon a Plain, for sometimes they shot out in length, like Rivers: and sometimes they flew into remote Countries in Colonies, like swarms from the Hive, and setled there, leaving many places un-inhabited betwixt them and their first home. Sea-shores and Islands were generally the last places inhabited: for while the memory or story of the Deluge was fresh amongst them, they did not care for coming so near their late Enemy: or, at least, to be enclosed and surrounded by his forces.

And this may be sufficient to have discourst concerning all the parts of the Deluge, and the restitution of the Earth to an habitable form, for the further union of our Theory with the History of Moses; There rests only one thing in that History to be taken notice of, which may be thought possibly not to agree so well with our account of the Deluge; namely, that Mosesseems to shut up the Abysse again at the end of the Deluge, which our Explication sypposeth to continue open. But besides that half the Abysse is still really covered, Mosessaith the same thing of the windows of Heaven, that they were shut up too; and he seemeth in both to express only the cessation of the Effect which proceeded from their opening: For as Moseshad ascribed the Deluge to the opening of these two, so when it was to cease, he saith, these two were shut up; as they were really put" into such a condition, both of them, that they could not continue the Deluge any longer, nor ever be the occasion of a second; and therefore in that sence, and as to that effect were for ever shut up. Some may possibly make that also an Objection against us, that Mosesmentions and supposes the Mountainsat the Deluge, for he saith, the waters reached fifteen Cubits above the tops of them; whereas we suppose the Ante-diluvian Earth to have had a plain and uniform surface, without any inequality of Hills and Valleys. But this is easily answered, twas in the height of the Deluge that Mosesmentioned the Mountains, and we suppose them to have risen then or more towards the beginning of it, when the Earth was broke; and these Mountains continuing still upon the face of the Earth, Moses might very well take them for a standard to measure and express to Posterity the height of the waters, though they were not upon the Earth when the Deluge begun. Neither is there any mention made, as is observed by some, of Mountains in Scripture, or of Rain, till the time of the Deluge.

We have now finisht our account of Noah's Flood, both generally and particularly; and I have not wittingly omitted or concealed any difficulty that occured to me, either from the History, or from abstract reason: Our Theory, so far as I know, hath the consent and authority of both: And how far it agrees and is demonstrable from natural observation, or from the form and Phomenaof this Earth, as it lies at present, shall be the subject of the remaining part of this First Book. In the mean time I do not know any thing more to be added in this part, unless it be to conclude with an Advertisement to prevent any mistake or misconstruction, as if this Theory, by explaining the Deluge in a natural way, or by natural causes, did detract from the power of God, by which that great judgment was brought upon the World in a Providential and miraculous manner.

To satisfie all reasonable and intelligent persons in this particular, I answer and declare, first, That we are far from excluding Divine Providence, either ordinary or extraordinary, from the causes and conduct of the Deluge. I know a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without the will of our Heavenly Father, much less doth the great World fall in pieces without his good pleasure and superintendency. In him all things live, move, and have their being; Things that have Life and Thought have it from him, he is the Fountain of both: Things that have motion only, without Thought, have it also from him: And what hath only naked Being, without Thought or Motion, owe still that Being to him. And these are not only derived from God at first, but every moment continued and conserved by him. So intimate and universal is the dependance of all things upon the Divine Will and Power.

In the second place, they are guilty, in my Judgment, of a great Error or indiscretion, that oppose the course of Nature to Providence. St. Paulsays (Act. 14. 17.) God hath not left us without witness, in that he gives us Rain from Heaven; yet Rains proceed from natural causes, and fall upon the Sea as well as upon the Land. In like manner, our Saviour makes those things instances of Divine Providence, which yet come to pass in an ordinary course of Nature; In that part of his excellent Sermon upon the Mount, that concerns Providence, He bids them Consider the Lilies how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yetSolomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these; He bids them also consider the Ravens, they neither sow nor reap, neither have they Storehouse nor Barn, and God feedeth them. The Lilies grow, and the Ravens are fed according to the ordinary course of Nature, and yet they are justly made arguments of Providence by our Saviour; nor are these things less Providential, because constant and regular; on the contrary, such a disposition or establishment of second causes, as will in the best order, and for a long succession, produce the most regular effects, assisted only with the ordinary concourse of the first cause, is a greater argument of wisdom and contrivance, than such a disposition of causes as will not in so good an order, or for so long a time produce regular effects, without an extraordinary concourse and interposition of the First cause. This, I think, is clear to every man's judgment. We think him a better Artist that makes a Clock that strikes regularly at every hour from the Springs and Wheels which he puts in the work, than he that hath so made his Clock that he must put his finger to it every hour to make it strike: And if one should contrive a piece of Clock-work so that it should beat all the hours, and make all its motions regularly for such a time, and that time being come, upon a signal given, or a Spring toucht, it should of its own accord fall all to pieces; would not this be looked upon as a piece of greater Art, than if the Workman came at that time prefixt, and with a great Hammer beat it into pieces? I use these comparisons to convince us, that it is no detraction from Divine Providence, that the course of Nature is exact and regular, and that even in its greatest changes and revolutions it should still con-spire and be prepared to answer the ends and purposes of the Divine Will in reference to the MoralWorld. This seems to me to be the great Art of Divine Providence, so to adjust the two Worlds, Humane and Natural, Material and Intellectual, as seeing thorough the possibilities and futuritions of each, according to the first state and circumstances he puts them under, they should all along correspond and fit one another, and especially in their great Crises and Periods.

Thirdly, Besides the ordinary Providence of God in the ordinary course of Nature, there is doubtless an extraordinary Providence that doth attend the greater Scenes and the greater revolutions of Nature. This, methinks, besides all other proof from the Effects, is very rational and necessary in it self; for it would be a limitation of the Divine Power and Will so to be bound up to second causes, as never to use, upon occasion, an extraordinary influence or direction: And tis manifest, taking any Systeme of Natural causes, if the best possible, that there may be more and greater things done, if to this, upon certain occasions you joyn an extraordinary conduct. And as we have taken notice before, that there was an extraordinary Providence in the formation or composition of the first Earth, so I believe there was also in the dissolution of it; And I think it had been impossible for the Ark to have lived upon the raging Abysse, or for Noahand his Family to have been preserved, if there had not been a miraculous hand of Providence to take care of them. But tis hard to separate and distinguish an ordinary and extraordinary Providence in all cases, and to mark just how far one goes, and where the other begins. And writing a Theory of the Deluge here, as we do, we were to exhibit a Series of causes whereby it might be made intelligible, or to shew the proximate Natural causes of it; wherein we follow the example both of Mosesand St. Peter; and with the same veneration of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the government of Nature, by a constant ordinary Providence, and an occasional extraordinary.

So much for the Theory of the Deluge, and the second Section of this Discourse.

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter VII

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VII

That the Explication we have given of an Universal Deluge is not anIdea only, but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth, and the true Explication ofNoah's Flood; as is Evidenced by Argument and from History. An Examination ofTehom-Rabba, or the great Abysse, and that by it the Sea cannot be understood, nor the Subterraneous Waters, as they are at present. What the true Notion and Form of it was, collected fromMoses and other Sacred Writers; The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse, and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin, and the Formation of the Earth. Observations onDeucalion's Deluge.

WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature, and of the Universal Deluge, in a way that is intelligible, and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect; We have supposed nothing but what is also Evidenced, both as to the first form of the Earth, and as to the manner of its Dissolution: and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge; which was that, which put a period to the old World, and the first state of things. And though all this hath been deduced in due order, and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another, so far as I know, which is the true evidence of a Theory; yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons, who will allow, it may be, and acknowledge, that this is a fair Ideaof a possible Deluge in general, and of the destruction of a World by it; but this may be only an Idea, they'll say; we desire it may be Evidenced from some collateral arguments, taken either from Sacred History, or from observation, that this hath really been exemplified upon the Earth, and that Noah's Flood came to pass this way. And seeing we have designed this first Book chiefly for the Explication of Noah's Deluge, I am willing to add here a Chapter or two extraordinary upon this occasion; to shew, that what we have delivered is more than an Idea, and that it was in this very way that Noah's Deluge came to pass. But they who have not this doubt, and have a mind to see the issue of the Theory, may skip these two Chapters, if they please, and proceed to the following.

To satisfie then the doubtful in this particular, let us lay down in the first place that conclusion which they seem to admit, viz. That this is a possible and consistent Explication of an Universal Deluge; and let's see how far this would go, if well considered, towards the proof of what they desire, or towards the demonstration of Noah's Deluge in particular. It is granted on both hands, that there hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth, which was Noah's Deluge; and it is also granted, that we have given a possible and consistent Ideaof an Universal Deluge; Now we have Evidenced Chap. II. and III. that all other ways assigned for the Explication of Noah's Flood are false or impossible; therefore it came to pass in that possible way which we have proposed. And if we have truly Evidenced, in the forementioned Chapters, the impossibility of it in all other ways, this argumentation is undeniable. Besides, we may argue thus, As it is granted that there hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth; so I suppose it will be granted that there hath been but one: Now the dissolution of the Earth, whensoever it happened, would make one universal Deluge, and therefore the only one, and the same with Noah's. That such a Dissolution as we have describ'd, would make an universal Deluge, I think, cannot be questioned; and that there hath been such a dissolution, besides what we have already alledged, shall be Evidenced at large from natural Observations upon the Form and Figure of the present Earth, in the ThirdSection and last Chap. of this Book; In the mean time we will proceed to History, both Sacred and Profane, and by comparing our Explication with those, give further assurance of its truth and reality.

In the first place, it agrees, which is most considerable, with Moses's Narration of the Deluge; both as to the matter and manner of it. The matter of the Deluge Moses makes to be the Waters from above, and the Waters from below; or he distinguishes the causes of the Deluge, as we do, into Superiour and Inferiour; and the Inferiour causes he makes to be the disruption of the Abysse, which is the principal part, and the great hinge of our Explication. Then as to the manner of the Deluge, the beginning and the ending, the increase and decrease, he saith it increased gradually, and decreast gradually, by goingand coming;.that is after many repeated fluctuations and reciprocations of the waves, the waters of the Abysse began to be more composed, and to retire into their Chanels, whence they shall never return to cover the Earth again. This agrees wholly with our Theory; we suppose the Abysse to have been under an extream commotion and agitation by the fall of the Earth into it, and this at first encreast more and more, till the whole Earth was fain; Then continuing for some time at the height of its rage, overwhelming the greatest Mountains, it afterwards decreast by the like degrees, leaving first the tops of the Mountains, then the Hills and the Fields, till the Waters came to be wholly drawn off the Earth into their Chanels.

It was no doubt a great oversight in the Ancients, to fancy the Deluge like a great standing Pool of water, reaching from the bottom of the Valleys to the tops of the Mountains, every where alike, with a level and uniform surface; by reason of which mistaken notion of the Deluge, they made more water necessary to it than was possible to be had, or being had, than it was possible to get quit of again; for there are no Chanels in the Earth that could hold so much water, either to give it, or to receive it. And the Psalmistspeaking of the Deluge, as it seems to me, notes this violent commotion of the Abysse. The Waters went up by the Mountains, came down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. I know some interpret that passage of the state of the waters in the beginning, when they covered the face of the whole Earth, Gen. 1. 2. but that cannot be, because of what follows in the next Verse; Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the Earth. Which is not true, if the preceding words be understood of the state of the waters at the beginning of the World; for they did pass those bounds, and did return since that time to cover the Earth, namely at the Deluge: But if these words be refered to the time of the Deluge, and the state of the waters then, tis both a just description of the motion of the Abysse, and certainly true, that the waters since that time are so setled in their Chanels, that they shall never overflow the Earth again. As we are assured by the promise made to Noah, and that illustrious pledge and confirmation of it, the Rainbow, that the Heavens also shall never pour out so much waters again; their state being changed as well as that of the Earth, or Sea, from what they were before the Deluge.

But before we leave Moses's Narration of the Deluge, we must examine further, what is, or can be understood by his TEHOM-RABBA, or great Abysse, which he saith was broken up at the Deluge; for this will help us to discover, whether our Explication be the same with his, and of the same Flood. And first we must consider, whether by the Tehom-Rabba, or Mosaical Abysse can be understood the Sea or Ocean, under that form we see it in at present; and tis plain, methinks, that the Sea cannot be understood by this great Abysse, both because the Sea is not capable upon any disruption to make such an universal Deluge; and because the Narration of Moses, and his expressions concerning this Abysse, do not agree to the Sea. Some of the Ancients indeed did imagine, that the waters of the Sea were much higher than the Land, and stood, as it were, on an heap; so as when these waters were let loose, they overflowed the Earth, and made a Deluge. But this is known to be a gross mistake; the Sea and the Land make one Globe, and the Waters couch themselves, as close as may be, to the Center of this Globe in a Spherical convexity; so that if all the Mountains and Hills were scaled, and the Earth made even, the Waters would not overflow its smooth surface; much less could they overflow it in the form that it is now in, where the Shores are higher than the Sea, the Inland parts than the Shores, and the Mountains still far above all: So as no disruption of the Sea could make an universal Deluge, by reason of its situation. But besides that, the quantity of Water contained in the Sea is no way sufficient to make a Deluge in the present form of the Earth; for we have shewn before, Chap. 2. that Eight such Oceans as ours would be little enough for that purpose. Then as to the expressions of Mosesconcerning this Abysse, if he had meant the Sea by it, and that the Deluge was made by the disruption of the Sea, why did he not say so? There is no mention of the Sea in all the History of the Deluge: Moseshad mentioned the Sea before, Gen. 1.10. and used a word that was common and known to signifie the Sea; And if he had a mind to express the same thing here, why should he not use the same word and the same term? In an Historical relation we use terms that are most proper and best known; but instead of that he useth the same term here that he did, Gen. 1. 2. when he saith, Darkness was upon the face of the Abysse, or of the Deep, as we render it; there the Abysse was open, or covered with darkness only, namely before the exteriour Earth was formed; Here the same Abysse is mentioned again, but covered, by the formation of the Earth upon it; and the covering of this Abysse was broken or cloven asunder, and the Waters gusht out that made the Deluge. This I am sure is the most natural interpretation or signification of this word, according as it is used in Moses's writings. Furthermore, we must observe what Mosessaith concerning this Abysse, and whether that will agree with the Sea or no; he saith the Fountains of the great Abysse were broken open; now if by the great Abysse you understand the Sea, how are its Fountains broken open? To break open a Fountain, is to break open the ground that covers it, and what ground covers the Sea? So that upon all considerations, either of the word that Moseshere useth, Tehom-Rabba, or of the thing affirmed concerning it, breaking open its Fountains; or of the effect following the breaking open its Fountains, drowning of the Earth; from all these heads it is manifest, that the Sea cannot be understood by the great Abysse, whose disruption was the cause of the Deluge.

And as the MosaicalAbysse cannot be the Sea, so neither can it be those Subterraneous waters that are disperst in the Cells and Caverns of the Earth; for as they are now lodged within the Earth, they are not one Abysse, but several Cisterns and Receptacles of water, in several places, especially under the roots of Mountains and Hills; separate one from another, sometimes by whole Regions and Countries interposed. Besides what Fountains, if they were broken up, could let out this water, or bring it upon the face of the Earth? When we sink a Mine, or dig a Well, the waters, when uncovered, do not leap out of their places, or out of those Cavities, and flow upon the Earth; Tis not as if you opened a Vein, where the Bloud spirts out, and riseth higher than its Source; but as when you take off the cover of a Vessel, the water doth not fly out for that: So if we should imagine all the Subterraneous Caverns of the Earth uncovered, and the waters laid bare, there they would lie unmoved in their beds, if the Earth did not fall into them to force them up. Furthermore, if these waters were any way extracted and laid upon the surface of the ground, nothing would be gained as to the Deluge by that, for as much water would run into these holes again when the Deluge begun to rise; so that this would be but an useless labour, and turn to no account. And lastly, these waters are no way sufficient for quantity to answer to the Mosaical Abysse, or to be the principal cause of the Deluge, as that was.

Now seeing neither the Sea, as it is at present, nor the Subterraneous waters, as they are at present, can answer to the Mosaical Abysse, we are sure there is nothing in this present Earth that can answer to it. Let us then on the other hand compare it with that Subterraneous Abysse, which we have found in the Ante-diluvian Earth, represented 2 Fig. 5, and examine their characters and correspondency: First, Moses's Abysse was covered, and Subterraneous, for the Fountainsof it are said to have been cloven or burst open; then it was vast and capacious; and thirdly, it was so disposed, as to be capable of a disruption, that would cause an universal Deluge to the Earth. Our Ante-diluvian Abysse answers truly to all these characters; twas in the womb of the Earth; the Earth was founded upon those Waters, as the Psalmistsaith; or they were enclosed within the Earth as in a Bag. Then for the capacity of it, it contained both all the waters now in the Ocean, and all those that are dispersed in the Caverns of the Earth: And lastly, it is manifest its situation was such, that upon a disruption or dissolution of the Earth which covered it, an universal Deluge would arise. Seeing then this answers the description, and all the properties of the MosaicalAbysse, and nothing else will, how can we in reason judge it otherwise than the same, and the very thing intended and proposed in the History of Noah's Deluge under the name of Tehom-Rabba, or the great Abysse, at whose disruption the World was overflowed. And as we do not think it an unhappy discovery to have found out (with a moral certainty) the seat of the MosaicalAbysse, which hath been almost as much sought for, and as much in vain, as the seat of Paradise; so this gives us a great assurance, that the Theory we have given of a general Deluge, is not a meer Idea, but is to be appropriated to the Deluge of Noah, as a true explication of it.

And to proceed now from Mosesto other Divine writers; That our Description is a reality, both as to the Ante-diluvian Earth, and as to the Deluge, we may further be convinced from St. Peter's discourse concerning those two things. St. Petersaith, that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such, in reference to the Waters, that by reason of that it was obnoxious to a Deluge; we say these Waters were the great Abysseit stood upon, by reason whereof that World was really exposed to a Deluge, and overwhelmed in it upon the disruption of this Abysse, as Moseswitnesses. Tis true, St. Peterdoth not specifie what those waters were, nor mention either the Sea, or the Abysse; but seeing Mosestells us, that it was by the waters of the Abysse that the Earth was overwhelmed, St. Peter's waters must be understood of the same Abysse, because he supposeth them the cause of the same Deluge. And, I think, the Apostle's discourse there cannot receive a better illustration, than from Moses's History of the Deluge. Moses distinguishes the causes of the Flood into those that belong to the Heavens, and those that belong to the Earth; the Rains and the Abysse: St. Peteralso distinguisheth the causes of the Deluge into the constitution of the Heavens, in reference to its waters; and the constitution of the Earth, in reference to its waters; and no doubt they both aim at the same causes, as they refer to the same effect; only Mosesmentions the immediate causes, the Rains and the Waters of the Abysse; and St. Petermentions the more remote and fundamental causes, that constitution of the Heavens, and that constitution of the Earth, in reference to their respective waters, which made that world obnoxious to a Deluge: And these two speaking of Noah's Deluge, and agreeing thus with one another, and both with us, or with the Theory which we have given of a General Deluge, we may safely conclude, that it is no imaginary Idea, but a true account of that Ancient Flood, whereof Moseshath left us the History.

And seeing the right understanding of the Mosaical Abysseis sufficient alone to Evidence all we have delivered concerning the Deluge, as also concerning the frame of the Ante-diluvian Earth, give me leave to take notice here of some other places of Scripture that seem manifestly to describe this same form of the Abysse with the Earth above it, Psal. 24. 2. He founded the Earth upon the Seas, and established it upon the Floods; and Psal. 136. 6.He stretched out the Earth above the Waters. Now this Foundation of the Earth upon the Waters, or extensionof it above the Waters, doth most aptly agree to that structure and situation of the Abysse and the Ante-diluvian Earth, which we have assigned them, and which we have before described; but very improperly and forcedly to the present form of the Earth and the Waters. In that second place of the Psalmist, the word may be rendered either, he stretched, as we read it, or he fixt and consolidatedthe Earth above the Waters, as the Vulgate and Septuagint translate it: For tis from the same word with that which is used for the Firmament, Gen. 1. So that as the Firmament was extended over and around the Earth, so was the Earth extended over and about the Waters, in that first constitution of things; and I remember some of the Ancients use this very comparison of the Firmament and Earth, to express the situation of the ParadisiacalEarth in reference to the Sea or Abysse.

There is another remarkable place in the Psalms, to shew the disposition of the Waters in the first Earth; Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the Waters of the Sea as in a Bag, he layeth up the Abysses in storehouses. This answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the Abysse which it had before the Deluge, inclosed within the vault of the Earth, as in a Bagor in a Storehouse. I know very well what I render here in a Bag, is rendered in the English, as an heap; but that translation of the word seems to be grounded on the old Error, that the Sea is higher than the Land, and so doth not make a true sence. Neither are the two parts of the Verse so well suited and consequent one to another, if the first express an high situation of the Waters, and the second a low one. And accordingly the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Oriental Versions and Paraphrase, as also Symmachus, St. Jerome, and Basil, render it as we do here, in a Bag, or by terms equivalent.

To these passages of the Psalmist, concerning the form of the Abysse and the first Earth, give me leave to add this general remark, that they are commonly ushered in, or followed, with something of Admiration in the Prophet. We observed before, that the formation of the first Earth, after such a wonderful manner, being a piece of Divine Architecture, when it was spoken of in Scripture, it was usually ascribed to a particular Providence, and accordingly we see in these places now mentioned, that it is still made the object of praise and admiration: In that 136 Psalm tis reckoned among the wonders of God, Vers. 4, 5, 6. Give praise to him who alone doth great wonders; To him that by wisdom made the Heavens: To him that stretched out the Earth above the Waters. And in like manner, in that 33 Psalm, tis joyned with the forming of the Heavens, and made the subject of the Divine Power and Wisdom: Vers. 6, 7, 8, 9. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth; He gathereth the Waters of the Sea together, as in a Bag, he layeth up the Abysse in Storehouses. Let all the Earth fear the Lord; Let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him; For he spake, and it was; he commanded, and it stood fast. Namely, all things stood in that wonderful posture in which the Wordof his Power and Wisdom had establisht them. Davidoften made the works of Nature, and the External World, the matter of his Meditations, and of his praises and Philosophical Devotions; reflecting sometimes upon the present form of the World, and sometimes upon the primitive form of it: And though Poetical expressions, as the Psalmsare, seldom are so determinate and distinct, but that they may be interpreted more than one way, yet, I think, it cannot but be acknowledged, that those expressions and passages that we have instanced in, are more fairly and aptly understood of the Ancient form of the Sea, or the Abysse, as it was enclosed within the Earth, than of the present form of it in an open Chanel.

There are also in the book of Jobmany noble reflections upon the works of Nature, and upon the formation of the Earth and the Abysse; whereof that in Chap. 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the Empty places, and hangeth the Earth upon nothing, seems to parallel the expression of David; He stretched out the Earth upon the Waters; for the word we render the empty placeis TOHU, which is applied to the Chaos and the first Abysse, Gen. 1. 2. and the hanging the Earth upon nothingis much more wonderful, if it be understood of the first habitable Earth, that hung over the Waters, sustained by nothing but its own peculiar form, and the libration of its parts, than if it be understood of the present Earth, and the whole body of it; for if it be in its Center or proper place, whither should it sink further, or whither should it go? But this passage, together with the foregoing and following Verses, requires a more critical examination than this Discourse will easily bear.

There is another remarkable discourse in Job, that contains many things to our present purpose, tis Chap. 38. where God reproaches Jobwith his ignorance of what passed at the beginning of the World, and the formation of the Earth, Vers. 4, 5, 6. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth? Declare if thou hast understanding: Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest; or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned, or who laid the corner-stone?All these questions have far more force and Emphasis, more propriety and elegancy, if they be understood of the first and Ante-diluvian form of the Earth, than if they be understood of the present; for in the present form of the Earth there is no Architecture, no structure, no more than in a ruine; or at least none comparatively to what was in the first form of it. And that the exteriour and superficial part of the Earth is here spoken of, appears by the rule and line applied to it; but what rule or regularity is there in the surface of the present Earth? what line was used to level its parts? But in its original construction when it lay smooth and regular in its surface, as if it had been drawn by ruleand linein every part; and when it hung poised upon the Deep, without pillar or foundation stone, then just proportions were taken, and every thing placed by weight and measure: And this, I doubt not, was that artificial structure here alluded to, and when this work was finisht, then the morning Stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

Thus far the questions proceed upon the form and construction of the first Earth; in the following verses(8, 9, 10, II.) they proceed upon the demolition of that Earth, the opening the Abysse, and the present state of both. Or who shut up the Sea with doors when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of a womb?Who can doubt but this was at the breaking open of the Fountains of the Abysse, Gen. 7. II. when the waters gusht out, as out of the great womb of Nature; and by reason of that confusion and perturbation of Air and Water that rise upon it, a thick mist and darkness was round the Earth, and all things as in a second Chaos,When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swadling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and made bars and doors. Namely, (taking the words as thus usually rendered) the present Chanel of the Sea was made when the Abysse was broke up, and at the same time were made the shory Rocks and Mountains which are the bars and boundaries of the Sea. And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. Which last sentence shows, that this cannot be understood of the first disposition of the waters as they were before the Flood, for their proud waves broke those bounds, whatsoever they were, when they overflowed the Earth in the Deluge. And that the womb which they broke out of was the great Abysse, The ChaldeeParaphrase 1 in this place doth expressly mention; and what can be understood by the womb of the Earth, but that Subterraneous capacity in which the Abysse lay? Then that which followeth, is a description or representation of the great Deluge that ensued, and of that disorder in Nature, that was then, and how the Waters were setled and Bounded afterwards. Not unlike the description in the 104 Psalm, vers. 6, 7, 8, 9. and thus much for these places in the book of Job.

There remains a remarkable discourse in the Evidencerbs of Solomon, relating to the MosaicalAbysse, and not only to that, but to the Origin of the Earth in general; where Wisdomdeclares her antiquity and pre-existence to all the works of this Earth, Chap. 8. vers. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, ere the Earth was. When there were no Deeps or Abysses, I was brought forth; when no fountains abounding with water. Then in the 27. verse, When he prepared the Heavens, I was there; when he set a Compass upon the face of the Deep or Abysse. When he established the Clouds above, when he strengthned the fountains of the Abysse. Here is mention made of the Abysse, and of the Fountains of the Abysse, and who can question, but that the Fountains of the Abysse here, are the same with the fountains of the Abysse which Mosesmentions, and were broken open, as he tells us, at the Deluge? Let us observe therefore what form Wisdom gives to this Abysse, and consequently to the Mosaical: And here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it, verse28. He strengthned the fountains of the Abysse, that is, the cover of those Fountains, for the Fountains could be strengthned no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them. And that Arch is exprest more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse, When he prepared the Heavens, I was there; when he set aCompass on the face of the Abysse; we render it Compass, the word signifies a Circle or Circumference, or an Orb or Sphere. So there was in the beginning of the World a Sphere, Orb or Arch set round the Abysse, according to the testimony of Wisdom, who was then present. And this skews us both the form of the MosaicalAbysse, which was included within this Vault: and the form of the habitable Earth, which was the outward surface of this Vault, or the cover of the Abysse that was broke up at the Deluge.

And thus much, I think, is sufficient to have noted out of Scripture, concerning the MosaicalAbysse, to discover the form, place, and situation of it; which I have done the more largely, because that being determined, it will draw in easily all the rest of our Theory concerning the Deluge. I will now only add one or two general Observations, and so conclude this discourse; The first Observation is concerning the Abysse; Namely, that the opening and shutting of the Abysse, is the great hinge upon which Nature turns in this Earth: This brings another face of things, other Scenes and a new World upon the stage: And accordingly it is a thing often mentioned and alluded to in Scripture, sometimes in a Natural, sometimes in a Moral or Theological sence; and in both sences, our Saviour shuts and opens as he pleaseth. Our Saviour, who is both Lord of Nature and of Grace, whose Dominion is both in Heaven and in Earth, hath a double Key; that of the Abysse, whereby Death and Hell are in his power, and all the revolutions of Nature are under his Conduct and Providence; And the Key of David, whereby he admits or excludes from the City of God and the Kingdom of Heaven whom he pleaseth. Of those places that refer to the shutting and opening the Abysse in a natural sence, I cannot but particularly take notice of that in Job. Chap. 12. vers. 14, 15. God breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up man, and there can be no opening: Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the Earth. Though these things be true of God in lesser and common instances, yet to me it is plain, that they principally refer to the Deluge, the opening and shutting the Abysse, with the dissolution or subversion of the Earth thereupon; and accordingly they are made the great effects of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the foregoing Verse, With God is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding; Behold, he breaketh down, &c. And also in the conclusion tis repeated again, With him is strength and wisdom which solemnity would scarce have been used for common instances of his power. When God is said to build or pull down, and no body can build again, tis not to be understood of an House or a Town, God builds and unbuilds Worlds; and who shall build up that Arch that was broke down at the Deluge? Where shall they lay the Foundation, or how shall the Mountains be reared up again to make part of the Roof? This is the Fabrick, which when God breaketh down, none can build up again. He withholdeth the waters and they dry up:As we shewed the Earth to have been immoderately chapt and parcht before its dissolution. He sendeth them forth and they overturn the Earth. What can more properly express the breaking out of the waters at the disruption of the Abysse? and the subversion or dissolution of the Earth in consequence of it? Tis true this last passage may be applied to the breaking out of waters in an ordinary Earthquake, and the subversion of some part of the Earth, which often follows upon it; but it must be acknowledged, that the sence is more weighty, if it be refered to the great Deluge, and the great Earthquake which laid the World in ruines and in water. And Philosophical descriptions in Sacred writings, like Prophecies, have often a lesser and a greater accomplishment and interpretation.

I could not pass by this place without giving this short Explication of it. We proceed now to the second Observation, which is concerning the stile of Scripture, in most of those places we have cited, and others upon the same subject. The reflections that are made in several parts of the Divine writings, upon the Origin of the World, and the formation of the Earth, seem to me to be writ in a stile something approaching to the nature of a Prophetical stile, and to have more of a Divine Enthusiasm and Elocution in them, than the ordinary text of Scripture; the expressions are lofty, and sometimes abrupt, and often figurative and disguised, as may be observed in most of those places we have made use of, and particularly in that speech of Wisdom, Prov. 8. where the 26. verseis so obscure, that no two Versions that I have yet met with, whether Ancient or Modern, agree in the Translation of that Verse. And therefore though I fully believe that the construction of the first Earth is really intended in those words, yet seeing it could not be made out clear without a long and critical discussion of them, I did not think it proper to be insisted upon here. We may also observe, that whereas there is a double form or composition of the Earth, that which it had at first, or till the Deluge, and that which it hath since; sometimes the one, and sometimes the other may be glanced upon in these Scripture phrases and descriptions; and so there may be in the same discourse an intermixture of both. And it commonly happens so in an Enthusiastick or Prophetick stile, that by reason of the eagerness and trembling of the Fancy, it doth not always regularly follow the same even thread of discourse, but strikes many times upon some other thing that hath relation to it, or lies under or near the same view. Of this we have frequent examples in the Apocalypse, and in that Prophecy of our Saviour's, Matth. 24. concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the World. But notwithstanding any such unevenness or indistinctness in the stile of those places which we have cited concerning the Origin and form of the Earth, we may at least make this remark, that if there never was any other form of the Earth but the present, nor any other state of the Abysse, than what it is in now, tis not imaginable what should give occasion to all those expressions and passages that we have cited; which being so strange in themselves and paradoxical, should yet so much favour, and so fairly comply with our suppositions. What I have observed in another place, in treating of Paradise, that the expressions of the Ancient Fathers were very extravagant, if Paradisewas nothing but a little plot of ground in Mesopotamia, as many of late have fansied; may in like manner be observed concerning the ancient Earth and Abysse, if they were in no other form, nor other state than what they are under now, the expressions of the Sacred Writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable, without any sufficient ground, or any just occasion for such uncouth representations. If there was nothing intended or refered to in those descriptions, but the present form and state of the Earth, that is so well known, that in describing of it there would be nothing dark or mysterious, nor any occasion for obscurity in the stile or expression, whereof we find so much in those. So as, all things considered, what might otherwise be made an exception to some of these Texts alledged by us, viz. that they are too obscure, becomes an argument for us: as implying that there is something more intended by them, than the present and known form of the Earth. And we having proposed another form and structure of the Earth, to which those characters suit and answer more easily, as this opens and gives light to those difficult places, so it may be reasonably concluded to be the very sence and notion intended by the holy Writers.

And thus much, I think, is sufficient to have observed out of Scripture, to verifie our Explication of the Deluge, and our Application of it to Noah's Flood, both according to the MosaicalHistory of the Flood, and according to many occasional reflections and discourses dispersed in other places of Scripture, concerning the same Flood, or concerning the Abysse and the first form of the Earth. And though there may be some other passages of a different aspect, they will be of no force to disEvidence our conclusions, because they respect the present form of the Earth and Sea; and also because expressions that deviate more from the common opinion, are more remarkable and more proving; in that there is nothing could give occasion to such, but an intention to express the very truth. So, for instance, if there was one place of Scripture that said the Earth was moved, and several that seemed to imply, that the Sunwas moved, we should have more regard to that one place for the motion of the Earth, than to all the other that made against it; because those others might be spoken and understood according to common opinion and common belief, but that which affirmed the motion of the Earth, could not be spoke upon any other ground, but only for truth and instruction sake. I leave this to be applied to the present subject.

Thus much for the Sacred writings. As to the History of the ancient Heathens, we cannot expect an account or Narration of Noah's Flood, under that name and notion; but it may be of use to observe two things out of that History. First, that the Inundations recorded there came generally to pass in the manner we have described the Universal Deluge; namely, by Earthquakes and an eruption of Subterraneous waters, the Earth being broken and falling in: and of this we shall elsewhere give a full account out of their Authors. Secondly, that Deucalion's Deluge in particular, which is supposed by most of the Ancient Fathers to represent Noah's Flood, is said to have been accompanied with a gaping or disruption of the Earth; Apollodorussaith, that the Mountains of Thessalywere divided asunder, or separate one from another at that time: And Lucian(de deSyri tells a very remarkable story to this purpose, concerning Deucalion's Deluge, and a ceremony observed in the Temple of Hieropolis, in commemoration of it; which ceremony seems to have been of that nature, as implied that there was an opening of the Earth at the time of the Deluge, and that the waters subsided into that again when the Deluge ceast. He saith, that this Temple at Hieropoliswas built upon a kind of Abysse, or has a bottomless pit, or gaping of the Earth in one part of it, and the people of Arabiaand Syria, and the Countries thereabouts twice a year repaired to this Temple, and brought with them every one a vessel of water, which they poured out upon the floor of the Temple, and made a kind of an Inundation there in memory of Deucalion's Deluge; and this water sunk by degrees into a Chasm or opening of a Rock, which the Temple stood upon, and so left the floor dry again. And this was a rite solemnly and religiously performed both by the Priests and by the People. If Moseshad left such a Religious rite among the Jews, I should not have doubted to have interpreted it concerning his Abysse, and the retiring of the waters into it; but the actual disruption of the Abysse could not well be represented by any ceremony. And thus much concerning the present question, and the true application of our Theory to Noah's Flood.

Footnotes

78:1 תהומָה מן

September 25, 2011
0
Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter VI

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VI

The dissolution of the First Earth: The Deluge ensuing thereupon. And the form of the present Earth rising from the Ruines of the First.

WE have now brought to light the Ante-diluvian Earth out of the dark mass of the Chaos; and not only described the surface of it, but laid open the inward parts, to shew in what order its Regions lay. Let us now close it up, and represent the Earth entire, and in larger proportions, more like an habitable World; as in this Figure, where you see the smooth convex of the Earth, and may imagine the great Abysse spread under it 2 ; which two are to be the only subject of our further contemplation.

In this smooth Earth were the first Scenes of the World, and the first Generations of Mankind; it had the beauty of Youth and blooming Nature, fresh and fruitful, and not a wrinkle, scar or fracture in all its body; no Rocks nor Mountains, no hollow Caves, nor gaping Chanels, but even and uniform all over. And the smoothness of the Earth made the face of the Heavens so too; the Air was calm and serene; none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours, which the Mountains and the Winds cause in ours: Twas suited to a golden Age, and to the first innocency of Nature.

All this you'll say is well, we are got into a pleasant World indeed, but what's this to the purpose? what appearance of a Deluge here, where there is not so much as a Sea, nor half so much water as we have in this Earth? or what appearance of Mountains, or Caverns, or other irregularities of the Earth, where all is level and united? So that instead of loosing the Knot, this ties it the harder. You pretend to shew us how the Deluge was made, and you lock up all the Waters within the womb of the Earth, and set Bars and Doors, and a Wall of impenetrable strength and thickness to keep them there. And you pretend to shew us the original of Rocks and Mountains, and Caverns of the Earth, and bring us to a wide and endless plain, smooth as the calm Sea.

This is all true, and yet we are not so far from the sight and discovery of those things as you imagine; draw but the curtain and these Scenes will appear, or something very like them. We must remember that St. Petertold us, that the Ante-diluvian Earth perished, or was demolished; and Mosessaith, the great Abysse was broken open at the Deluge.

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Click to enlargeLet us then suppose, that at a time appointed by Divine Providence, and from Causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful World, that this Abyssewas opened, or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse. At this one stroke all Nature would be changed, and this single action would have two great and visible Effects. The one Transient, and the other permanent. First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth, during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse, by the violent fall of the Earth into it. This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution, and all that World would be destroyed. Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswaged, and the Waters by degrees were retied into their Chanels, and the dry land appear'd, you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first. The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea; the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains, according as the pieces of this ruine were placed and dispos'd: Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks, and near the shoar would be Islands, or lesser fragments of Earth compassed round by Water. Then as to Subterraneous Waters, and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses, upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise; for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this, as in all other ruines: And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse, the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities; and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth. And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes, whether dry or full of Water, would be more or less in all places, where the parts fell hollow; yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains, and the higher parts of the Earth; for there the sides bearing up one against the other, they could not lie so close at the bottoms, but many vacuities would be intercepted. Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth; whether in the surface of it, or interiour construction, whereof this hypothesisdoth not give a ready, fair, and intelligible account; and doth at one view represent them all to us, with their causes, as in a glass: And whether that Glass be true, and the Image answer to the Original, if you doubt of it, we will hereafter examine them piece by piece. But in the first place, we must consider the General Deluge, how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it, and answers all the properties and conditions of it.

I think it will be easily allowed, that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have proposed, and fall of it into the Abysse, would certainly make an universal Deluge; and effectually destroy the old World, which perished in it. But we have not yet particularly Evidenced this dissolution, and in what manner the Deluge followed upon it: And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings, and upon our belief, as to see them deduced with their causes and circumstances; And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution, and after what manner it came to pass, and the Deluge in consequence of it.

We have noted before, that Mosesimputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abysse; and St. Peter, to the particular constitution of that Earth, which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water, so as our explication so far is justified. But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men, or the Spirit of God that directed them, to shew us the causes of this disruption, or of this absorption; this is left to the enquiries of men. For it was never the design of Providence, to give such particular explications of Natural things, that should make us idle, or the use of Reason unnecessary; but on the contrary, by delivering great conclusions to us, to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods, by which such things were brought to pass: And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural wisdom, than to find out the Chanel, in which these great revolutions of Nature, which we treat on, flow and succeed one another.

Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth, which we have deduced from the Chaos, and which we find to answer St. Peter's description, and Moseshis account of the Deluge. This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge, as the Apostle supposeth it to have been, but by a dissolution; for the Abysse was enclosed within its bowels. And Moses doth in effect tell us, there was such a dissolution, when he saith, The fountains of the great Abysse were broken open. For fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them: We must therefore here enquire in what order, and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolved, and then we shall soon see how, upon that dissolution, the Deluge immediately prevailed and overflowed all the parts of it.

I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand, how many Years, or how many Ages; but one would soon imagine, that this kind of structure would not be perpetual, nor last indeed many thousands of Years, if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it, and the Waters under it; drying and parching the one, and rarifying the other into vapours. For we must consider, that the course of the Sun at that time, or the posture of the Earth to the Sun, was such, that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year, as there is now; by reason of which alternation, our Earth is kept in an equality of temper, the contrary seasons balancing one another; so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth, tis repaid in the Rains of the next Winter; and what chaps were made in it, are filled up again, and the Earth reduced to its former constitution. But if we should imagine a continual Summer, the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more, and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it: And such a continual Summer there was, at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth, as shall be Evidenced in the following Book, concerning Paradise. In the mean time this being supposed, let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth, and the Waters under it.

We cannot believe, but that the heat of the Sun, within the space of some hundreds of years, would have reduced this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts; and also have much rarified and exhaled the Waters under it: And considering the structure of that Globe, the exteriour crust, and the Waters lying round under it, both exposed to the Sun, we may fitly compare it to an lipile, or an hollow Sphere with Water in it, which the heat of the Fire rarifies and turns into Vapours and Wind. The Sun here is as the Fire, and the exteriour Earth is as the Shell of the lipile, and the Abysse as the Water within it; now when the heat of the Sun had pierced through the Shell and reacht the Waters, it began to rarifie them, and raise them into Vapours; which rare-faction made them require more space and room than they needed before, while they lay close and quiet. And finding themselves pened in by the exteriour Earth, they pressed with violence against that Arch, to make it yield and give way to their dilatation and eruption. So we see all Vapours and Exhalations enclosed within the Earth, and agitated there, strive to break out, and often shake the ground with their attempts to get loose. And in the comparison we used of anlipile, if the mouth of it be stopt that gives the vent, the Water rarified will burst the Vessel with its force. And the resemblance of the Earth to an Egg, which we used before, holds also in this respect; for when it heats before the Fire, the moisture and Air within being rarified, makes it often burst the Shell. And I do the more willingly mention this last comparison, because I observe that some of the Ancients, when they speak of the doctrine of the Mundane Egg, say, that after a certain period of time it was broken.

But there is yet another thing to be considered in this case; for as the heat of the Sun gave force to these Vapours more and more, and made them more strong and violent; so on the other hand, it also weakened more and more the Arch of the Earth, that was to resist them; sucking out the moisture that was the cement of its parts, drying it immoderately, and chapping it in sundry places. And there being no Winter then to close up and unite its parts, and restore the Earth to its former strength and compactness, it grew more and more disposed to a dissolution. And at length, these preparations in Nature being made on either side, the force of the Vapours increased, and the walls weakened, which should have kept them in, when the appointed time was come, that All-wise Providence had designed for the punishment of a sinful World, the whole fabrick brake, and the frame of the Earth was torn in pieces, as by an Earthquake; and those great portions or fragments, into which it was divided, fell down into the Abysse, some in one posture, and some in another.

This is a short and general account how we may conceive the dissolution of the first Earth, and an universal Deluge arising upon it. And this manner of dissolution hath so many examples in Nature every Age, that we need not insist farther upon the Explication of it. The generality of Earthquakes arise from like causes, and often end in a like effect, a partial Deluge, or Inundation of the place or Country where they happen; and of these we have seen some instances even in our own times: But whensoever it so happens, that the Vapours and Exhalations shut up in the caverns of the Earth, by rarefaction or compression come to be straitned, they strive every way to set themselves at liberty, and often break their prison, or the cover of the Earth that kept them in; which Earth upon that disruption falls into the Subterraneous Caverns that lie under it: And if it so happens that those Caverns are full of Water, as generally they are, if they be great or deep, that City or tract of Land is drowned. And also the fall of such a mass of Earth, with its weight and bulk, doth often force out the Water so impetuously, as to throw it upon all the Country round about. There are innumerable examples in History (whereof we shall mention some hereafter) of Cities and Countries thus swallowed up, or overflowed, by an Earthquake, and an Inundation arising upon it. And according to the manner of their fall or ruine, they either remained wholly under water, and perpetually drowned, as Sodomand Gomorrha, Plato's Atlantis, Buraand Helice, and other Cities and Regions in Greece and Asia; or they partly emerged, and became dry Land again; when (their situation being pretty high) the Waters, after their violent agitation was abated, retied into the lower places, and into their Chanels.

Now if we compare these partial dissolutions of the Earth with an universal dissolution, we may as easily conceive an universal Deluge from an universal Dissolution, as a partial Deluge from a partial Dissolution. If we can conceive a City, a Country, an Island, a Continent thus absorpt and overflown; if we do but enlarge our thought and imagination a little, we may conceive it as well of the whole Earth. And it seems strange to me, that none of the Ancients should hit upon this way of explaining the universal Deluge; there being such frequent instances in all Ages and Countries of Inundations made in this manner, and never of any great Inundation made otherwise, unless in maritim Countries, by the irruption of the Sea into grounds that lie low. Tis true, they would not so easily imagine this Dissolution, because they did not understand the true form of the Antediluvian Earth; but, methinks, the examination of the Deluge should have led them to the discovery of that: For observing the difficulty, or impossibility of an universal Deluge, without the Dissolution of the Earth; as also frequent instances of these Dissolutions accompanied with Deluges, where the ground was hollow, and had Subterraneous Waters; this, methinks, should have prompted them to imagine, that those Subterraneous Waters were universal at that time, or extended quite round the Earth; so as a dissolution of the exteriour Earth could not be made any where, but it would fall into Waters, and be more or less overflowed. And when they had once reacht this thought, they might conclude both what the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth was, and that the Deluge came to pass by the dissolution of it. But we reason with ease about the finding out of things, when they are once found out; and there is but a thin paper-wall sometimes between the great discoveries and a perfect ignorance of them. Let us proceed now to consider, whether this supposition will answer all the conditions of an universal Deluge, and supply all the defects which we found in other Explications.

The great difficulty proposed, was to find Water sufficient to make an universal Deluge, reaching to the tops of the Mountains; and yet that this Water should be transient, and after some time should so return into its Chanels, that the dry Land would appear, and the Earth become again habitable. There was that double impossibility in the common opinion, that the quantity of water necessary for such a Deluge was no where to be found, or could no way be brought upon the Earth; and then if it was brought, could no way be removed again. Our explication quite takes off the edge of this Objection; for, performing the same effect with a far less quantity of Water, tis both easie to be found, and easily removed when the work is done. When the exteriour Earth was broke, and fell into the Abysse, a good part of it was covered with water by the meer depth of the Abysse it fell into, and those parts of it that were higher than the Abysse was deep, and consequently would stand above it in a calm water, were notwithstanding reacht and overtoped by the waves, during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abysse. For it is not imaginable what the commotion of the Abysse would be upon this dissolution of the Earth, nor to what height its waves would be thrown, when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it. Suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two, and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean, I do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression, would rise as high as a Mountain. But suppose a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks to fall from that height, or a great Island, or a Continent; these would expel the waters out of their places, with such a force and violence, as to fling them among the highest Clouds.

Tis incredible to what height sometimes great Stones and Cinders will be thrown, at the eruptions of fiery Mountains; and the pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abysse, though it be a force of another kind, could not but impel the water with so much strength, as would carry it up to a great height in the Air; and to the top of any thing that lay in its way, any eminency, or high fragment whatsoever: And then rowling back again, it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon, Woods, Buildings, living Creatures, and carry them all headlong into the great gulf. Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest, and tost through the Air like a flying River; but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills, or inclined fragments, and then return into the valleys and deeps again, with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming, ascending and descending, till the violence of them being spent by degrees, they setled at last in the places allotted for them; where bounds are set that they cannot pass over, that they return not again to cover the Earth.

Neither is it to be wondered, that the great Tumult of the waters, and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months; for besides, that the first shock and commotion of the Abysse was extremely violent, from the general fall of the Earth, there were ever and anon some secondary ruines; or some parts of the great ruine, that were not well setled, broke again, and made new commotions: And twas a considerable time before the great fragments that fell, and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted, as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture: For the props and stays whereby they leaned one upon another, or upon the bottom of the Abysse, often failed, either by the incumbent weight, or the violent impulses of the water against them; and so renewed, or continued the disorder and confusion of the Abysse. Besides, we are to observe, that these great fragments falling hollow, they inclosed and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of Air; and while the water compassed these fragments, and overflowed them, the Air could not readily get out of those prisons, but by degrees, as the Earth and Water above would give way; so as this would also hinder the settlement of the Abysse, and the retiring of the Water into those Subterraneous Chanels, for some time. But at length, when this Air had found a vent, and left its place to the Water, and the ruines, both primary and secondary, were setled and fixt, then the Waters of the Abysse began to settle too, and the dry Land to appear; first the tops of the Mountains, then the high Grounds, then the Plains and the rest of the Earth. And this gradual subsidency of the Abysse (which Moses also hath particularly noted) and discovery of the several parts of the Earth, would also take up a considerable time.

Thus a new World appeared, or the Earth put on its new form, and became divided into Sea and Land; and the Abysse, which from several Ages, even from the beginning of the World, had lain hid in the womb of the Earth, was brought to light and discovered; the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean, and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth: Upon the Land appeared the Mountains and the Hills, and the Islands in the Sea, and the Rocks upon the shore. And so the Divine Providence, having prepared Nature for so great a change, at one stroke dissolved the frame of the old World, and made us a new one out of its ruines, which we now inhabit since the Deluge. All which things being thus explained, deduced, and stated, we now add and pronounce our Third and last Proposition; That the disruption of the Abysse, or dissolution of the primal Earth and its fall into the Abysse, was the cause of the Universal Deluge, and of the destruction of the old World.

Footnotes

64:2 As at the aperturea. a.

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter IV

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER IV

That the Earth and Mankind had an Original, and were not from Eternity: Evidenced againstAristotle. The first proposition of our Theory laid down, viz. That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of a different form and construction from the present. This is Evidenced by Divine Authority, and from the nature and form of the Chaos, out of which the Earth was made.

WE are now to enquire into the Original of the Earth, and in what form it was built at first, that we may lay our foundation for the following Theory, deep and sure. It hath been the general opinion and consent of the Learned of all Nations, that the Earth arose from a Chaos. This is attested by History, both Sacred and Profane; only Aristotle, whom so great a part of the Christian world have made their Oracle or Idol, hath maintained the Eternity of the Earth, and the Eternity of mankind; that the Earth and the World were from Everlasting, and in that very form they are in now, with Men and Women and all living Creatures. Trees and Fruit, Metals and Minerals, and whatsoever is of Natural production. We say all these things arose and had their first existence or production not six thousand years ago; He saith, they have subsisted thus for ever, through an infinite Series of past Generations, and shall continue as long, without first or last: And if so, there was neither Chaos, nor any other beginning to the Earth. This takes away the subject of our discourse, and therefore we must first remove this stone out of the way, and Evidence that the Earth had an Original, and that from a Chaos, before we show how it arose from a Chaos, and what was the first habitable form that it setled into.

We are assured by Divine Authority, that the Earth and Mankind had a beginning; Mosessaith, In the beginning God made the Heavens and the Earth. Speaking it as of a certain Period or Term from whence he counts the Age of the World. And the same Mosestells us, that Adamwas the first Man, and Evethe first Woman, from whom sprung the race of Mankind; and this within the compass of six thousand years. We are also assured from the Prophets, and our Christian Records, that the world shall have an end, and that by a general Conflagration, when all Mankind shall be destroyed, with the form and all the furniture of the Earth. And as this Evidences the second part of Aristotle's Doctrine to be false immediately, so doth it the first, by a true consequence: for what hath an end had a beginning, what is not immortal, was not Eternal; for what exists by the strength of its own Nature at first, the same Nature will enable it to exist for ever; and indeed what exists of it self, exists necessarily; and what exists necessarily, exists eternally.

Having this infallible assurance of the Origin of the Earth and of Mankind, from Scripture, we proceed to refute the same Doctrine of Aristotle's by natural Reason. And we will first consider the form of the Earth, and then Mankind; and shew from plain evidence and observation, neither of them to have been Eternal. Tis natural to the mind of man to consider that which is compound, as having been once more simple; whether that composition be a mixture of many ingredients, as most Terrestrial bodies are, or whether it be Organical; but especially if it be Organical; For a thing that consists of a multitude of pieces aptly joyned, we cannot but conceive to have had those pieces, at one time or another, put together. 'Twere hard to conceive an eternal Watch, whose pieces were never separate one from another, nor ever in any other form than that of a Watch. Or an eternal House, whose materials were never a-sunder, but always in the form of an House. And tis as hard to conceive an eternal Earth, or an eternal World:These are made up of more various substances, more ingredients, and a far greater composition; and the living part of the World, Plants and Animals, have far more variety of parts and multifarious construction, than any House, or any other artificial thing: So that we are led as much by Nature and necessity to conceive this great machine of the World, or of the Earth, to have been once in a state of greater simplicity than now it is, as to conceive a Watch, an House, or any other structure, to have been once in its first and simple materials. This I speak without reference to immediate Creation, for Aristotledid not own any such thing, and therefore the argument stands good against him, upon those grounds and notions that he goes. Yet I guess what answer would be made by him or his followers to this argumentation; They would say there is not the same reason for Natural things, as for Artificial, though equally compounded. Artificial things could not be from Eternity, because they suppose Man, by whose Art they were made, pre-existent to them; the workman must be before the work, and whatsoever hath any thing before it, is not Eternal. But may not the same thing be said of Natural things? do not most of them require the action of the Sun, and the influence of the Heavens for their production, and longer preparations than any Artificial things do? Some Years or Ages would be necessary for the concoction and maturation of Metals and Minerals; Stones themselves, at least some sorts of them, were once liquors or fluid masses; and all Vegetable productions require the heat of the Sun, to pre-dispose and excite the Earth, and the Seeds. Nay, according to Aristotle, tis not Man by himself that begets a Man, but the Sun is his Coadjutor. You see then twas as necessary that the Sun, that great workman of Nature, should pre-exist to Natural things, produced in or upon the Earth, as that Man should pre-exist to Artificial. So that the Earth under that form and constitution it now hath, could no more be Eternal, than a Statue or Temple, or any work of Art.

Besides, that form, which the Earth is under at present, is in some sort preternatural, like a Statue made and broken again; and so hath still the less appearance or pretence of being Eternal. If the Elements had lain in that order to one another, as Aristotlehath disposed them, and as seems to be their first disposition, the Earth altogether in a mass in the middle, or towards the Center; then the Water in a Spherical mass about that; the Air above the Water, and then a Sphere of Fire, as he fansied, in the highest Circle of the Air: If they had lain, I say, in this posture, there might have been some pretence that they had been Eternally so; because that might seem to be their Original posture, in which Nature had first placed them. But the form and posture we find them in at present is very different, and according to his Doctrine must be lookt upon as unnatural and violent; and no violent state by his own Maxim, can be perpetual, or can have been so.

But there is still a more pressing consideration against this Opinion. If this present state and form of the Earth had been from Eternity, it would have long ere this destroyed it self, and changed it self: the Mountains sinking by degrees into the Valleys, and into the Sea, and the Waters rising above the Earth; which form it would certainly have come into sooner or later, and in it continued drowned and uninhabitable, for all succeeding Generations. For tis certain, that the Mountains and higher parts of the Earth grow lesser and lesser from Age to Age; and that from many causes, sometimes the roots of them are weakened and eaten by Subterraneous Fires, and sometimes they are torn and tumbled down by Earthquakes, and fall into those Caverns that are under them; and though those violent causes are not constant, or universal, yet if the Earth had stood from Eternity, there is not a Mountain would have escaped this fate in one Age or other. The course of these exhalations or Fires would have reached them all sooner or later, if through infinite Ages they had stood exposed to them. But there are also other causes that consume them insensibly, and make them sink by degrees; and those are chiefly the Winds, Rains, and Storms, and heat of the Sun without; and within, the soaking of Water and Springs, with streams and Currents in their veins and crannies. These two sorts of causes would certainly reduce all the Mountains of the Earth, in tract of time, to equality; or rather lay them all under Water: For whatsoever moulders or is washt away from them, is carried down into the lower grounds, and into the Sea, and nothing is ever brought back again by any circulation: Their losses are not repaired, nor any proportionable recruits made from any other parts of Nature. So as the higher parts of the Earth being continually spending, and the lower continually gaining, they must of necessity at length come to an equality; and the Waters that lie in the lower parts and in the Chanels, those Chanels and Valleys being filled up with Earth, would be thrust out and rise every where upon the surface of the Earth; Which new post when they had once seized on, they would never quit it, nor would any thing be able to dispossess them; for tis their natural place and situation which they always tend to, and from which there is no progress nor regress in a course of Nature. So that the Earth would have been, both now, and from innumerable Generations before this, all under water and uninhabitable; if it had stood from everlasting, and this form of it had been its first original form.

Nor can he doubt of this argumentation, that considers the coherence of it, and will allow time enough for the effect. I do not say the Earth would be reduced to this uninhabitable form in ten thousand years time, though I believe it would: but take twenty, if you please, take an hundred thousand, take a million, tis all one, for you may take the one as easily as the other out of Eternity; and they make both equally against their supposition. Nor is it any matter how little you suppose the Mountains to decrease, tis but taking more time, and the same effect still follows. Let them but waste as much as a grain of Mustardseed every day, or a foot in an Age, this would be more than enough in ten thousand Ages to consume the tallest Mountain upon Earth. The Air alone, and the little drops of Rain have defaced the strongest and the proudest monuments of the Greeksand Romans; and allow them but time enough, and they will of themselves beat down the Rocks into the Sea, and the Hills into the Valleys. But if we add to these all those other forementioned causes that work with more violence, and the weight of the Mountains themselves, which upon any occasion offered, is ready to sink them lower, we shall shorten the time, and make the effect more sure.

We need add no more here in particular, against this AristotelianDoctrine, that makes the present form of the Earth to have been from Eternity, for the truth is, this whole Book is one continued argument against that Opinion; shewing that it hath de factochanged its form; both in that we have Evidenced that it was not capable of an universal Deluge in this form, and consequently was once under another; and also in that we shall Evidence at large hereafter, throughout the Third and Fourth Sections, that it hath been broken and dissolved. We might also add one consideration more, that if it had stood always under this form, it would have been under Fire, if it had not been under Water; and the Conflagration, which it is to undergo, would have overtaken it long ere this. For St. Petersaith, the Heavens and the Earth that are now, as opposed to the Ante-diluvian, and considered in their present form and constitution, are fitted to be consumed by Fire. And whosoever understands the progress and revolutions of Nature, will see that neither the present form of the Earth, nor its first form, were permanent and immutable forms, but transient and temporary by their own frame and constitution; which the Author of Nature, after certain periods of time, had designed for change and for destruction.

Thus much for the body of the Earth, that it could not have been from Eternity, as Aristotlepretended, in the form it hath. Now let's consider the Origination of Mankind; and that we shall find could much less be Eternal than the other; for whatsoever destroyed the form of the Earth, would also destroy Mankind; and besides, there are many particular marks and arguments, that the Generations of Men have not been from Everlasting. All History, and all monuments of Antiquity of what kind soever, are but of a few thousand of years date; we have still the memory of the golden Age, of the first state of Nature, and how mortals lived then in innocency and simplicity. The invention of Arts, even those that are necessary or useful to humane life, hath been within the knowledge of Men: How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients, how imperfect their knowledge of the Earth, how imperfect their Navigation? Can we imagine, if there had been Men from Everlasting, a Sea as now, and all materials for Shipping as much as we have, that men could have been so ignorant, both of the Land and of the Sea, as tis manifest they have been till of late Ages? They had very different fansies concerning the figure of the Earth? They knew no Land beyond our Continent, and that very imperfectly too; and the Torrid Zone they thought utterly uninhabitable. We think it strange, taking that short date of the World, which we give it, that Men should not have made more progress in the knowledge of these things; But how impossible is it then, if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting? They had the same wit and passions that we have, the same motives that we have, can we then imagine, that neither the ambition of Princes, nor Interest or gain in private persons, nor curiosity and the desire of Knowledge, nor the glory of discoveries, nor any other passion or consideration could ever move them in that endless time, to try their fortunes upon the Sea, and know something more of the World they inhabited? Though you should suppose them generally stupid, which there is no reason to do, yet in a course of infinite Generations, there would be some great Genio's, some extraordinary persons that would attempt things above the rest. We have done more within the compass of our little World, which we can but count, as to this, from the general Deluge, than those Eternal Men had done in their innumerable Ages foregoing.

You will say, it may be, they had not the advantages and opportunities for Navigation as we have, and for discoveries; because the use of the Loadstone, and the Mariners Needle was not then known. But that's the wonder, that either that invention, or any other should not be brought to light till tother day, if the World had stood from Eternity. I say this or any other practical invention; for such things when they are once found out and known, are not easily lost again, because they are of daily use. And tis in most other practical Arts as in Navigation, we generally know their Original and History: who the Inventors, and by what degrees imEvidenced, and how few of them brought to any perfection till of late Ages. All the Artificial and Mechanical World is, in a manner, new; and what you may call the Civil Worldtoo is in a great measure so. What relates to Government, and Laws; to Wars and Discipline; we can trace these things to their Origin, or very near it. The use of Money and of Coins, nay the use of the very Elements; for they tell us of the first invention of Fire by Prometheus, and the imploying of Wind or Water to turn the Mills and grind their Corn was scarce known before the Romans; and that we may think nothing Eternal here, they tell us the Ages and Genealogies of their very Gods. The measures of Time for the common uses of life, the dividing it into Hours, with the Instruments for those purposes, are not of an unknown date: Even the Arts for preparing Food and Clothing, Medicines and medicaments, Building, Civil and Military, Letters and Writing, which are the foundations of the World Civil: These, with all their retinue of lesser Arts and Trades that belong to them, History and Tradition tell us, when they had their beginning, or were very imperfect; and how many of their Inventors and Inventresses were deified. The World hath not stood so long but we can still run it up to those Artless Ages, when mortals lived by plain Nature; when there was but one Trade in the World, one Calling, to look to their Flocks; and afterwards to Till the Ground, when Nature grew less liberal: And may we not reasonably think this the beginning of Mankind, or very near it? If Man be a creature both naturally sagacious to find out its own conveniencies, and naturally sociable and inclined to live in a Community, a little time would make them find out and furnish themselves with what was necessary in these two kinds, for the conveniencies of single life, and the conveniencies of Societies; they would not have lived infinite Ages unprovided of them. If you say Necessityis the Mother of Arts and Inventions, and there was no necessity before, and therefore these things were so slowly invented. This is a good answer upon our supposition, that the World began but some Ages before these were found out, and was abundant with all things at first; and Men not very numerous, and therefore were not put so much to the use of their wits for living commodiously. But this is no answer upon their supposition; for if the World was Eternal and Men too, there were no first Ages, no new and fresh Earth; Men were never less numerous, nor the Earth more fruitful; and consequently there was never less necessity at any time than is now. This also brings to mind another argument against this opinion (viz.) from the gradual increase of Mankind. Tis certain the World was not so populous one or two thousand years since, as it is now, seeing tis observed, in particular Nations, that within the space of two or three hundred years, notwithstanding all casualties, the number of Men doubles. If then the Earth had stood from Everlasting, it had been over-stockt long ere this, and would not have been capable to contain its Inhabitants many Ages and Millions of Ages ago. Whereas we find the Earth is not yet sufficiently Inhabited, and there is still room for some Millions. And we must not flie to universal Deluges and Conflagrations to destroy Mankind; for besides that the Earth was not capable of a Deluge in this present form, nor would have been in this form after a Conflagration, Aristotledoth not admit of these universal changes, nor any that hold the form of the Earth to be Eternal. But to return to our Arts and Inventions.

We have spoken of practical Arts and Inventions useful in humane life; then for Theoretical Learning and Sciences, there is nothing yet finished or compleat in these; and what is known hath been chiefly the production of latter Ages. How little hath been discovered till of late, either of our own Bodies, or of the body of the Earth, and of the functions or motions of Nature in either? What more obvious, one would think, than the Circulation of the Bloud? What can more excite our curiosity than the flowing and ebbing of the Sea? Than the nature of Metals and Minerals? These are either yet unknown, or were so at least till this last Age; which seems to me to have made a greater progress than all Ages before put together, since the beginning of the World. How unlikely is it then that these Ages were Eternal? That the Eternal studies of our Forefathers could not effect so much as a few years have done of late? And the whole mass of knowledge in this Earth doth not seem to be so great, but that a few Ages more, with two or three happy Genius's in them, may bring to light all that we are capable to understand in this state of mortality.

To these arguments concerning the novelty of the Earth, and the Origin of Mankind, I know there are some shuffling excuses made, but they can have little effect upon those instances we have chosen. And I would ask those Eternalists one fair question, What mark is there that they could expect or desire of the novelty of a World, that is not found in this? Or what mark is there of Eternity that is found in this? If then their opinion be without any positive argument, and against all appearances in Nature, it may be justly rejected as unreasonable upon all accounts. Tis not the bold asserting of a thing that makes it true, or that makes it credible against evidence. If one should assert that such an one had lived from all Eternity, and I could bring witnesses that knew him a sucking Child, and others that remembred him a School-boy, I think it would be a fair proof, that the Man was not Eternal. So if there be evidence, either in Reason or History, that it is not very many Ages since Nature was in her minority, as appears by all those instances we have given above; some whereof trace her down to her very infancy: This, I think, may be taken for a good proof that she is not Eternal. And I do not doubt, but if the History of the World was writ Philosophically, giving an account of the several states of Mankind in several Ages, and by what steps or degrees they came from their first rudeness or simplicity to that order of things, both Intellectual and Civil, which the World is advanced to at present, that alone would be a full conviction, that the Earth and Mankind had a beginning. As the story of Rome, how it rise from a mean Original, by what degrees it increased, and how it changed its form and government till it came to its greatness, doth satisfie us very well, that the RomanEmpire was not Eternal.

Thus much concerning the Temporal Original of the Earth. We are now to consider the manner of it, and to shew how it rise from a Chaos. I do not remember that any of the Ancients that acknowledge the Earth to have had an Original, did deny that Original to have been from a Chaos. We are assured of both from the authority of Moses, who saith, that in the beginning the Earth was Tohu Bohu, without form and void; a fluid, dark, confused mass, without distinction of Elements; made up of all variety of parts, but without Order, or any determinate Form; which is the true description of a Chaos: And so it is understood by the general consent of Interpreters, both Hebrew and Christian. We need not therefore spend any time here to Evidence, that the Origin of the Earth was from a Chaos, seeing that is agreed on by all that give it any Origin. But we will proceed immediately to examine into what form it first rise when it came out of that Chaos; or what was the primal form of the Earth, that continued till the Deluge, and how the Deluge depended upon it, and upon its dissolution.

And that we may proceed in this enquiry by such easie steps as any one may readily follow, we will divide it into three Propositions, whereof the first is this in general; That the Form of the Ante-diluvian Earth, or of the Earth that rise first from the Chaos, was different from the Form of the present Earth. I say different in general, without specifying yet what its particular form was, which shall be exprest in the following Proposition.

The first Proposition we have in effect Evidenced in the Second Chapter; where we have shewn, that if the Earth had been always in this form, it would not have been capable of a Deluge; seeing that could not have been effected without such an infinite mass of water as could neither be brought upon the Earth, nor afterwards any way removed from it. But we will not content our selves with that proof only, but will Evidence it also from the nature of the Chaos, and the manifest consequences of it. And because this is a leading Proposition, we think it not improper to Evidence it also from Divine authority, there being a pregnant passage to this purpose in the writings of St. Peter. Where treating of this very subject, the Deluge, He manifestly puts a difference between the Ante-diluvian Earth and present Earth, as to their form and constitution. The Discourse is in the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Third Chapter, where certain Deists, as they seem to have been, laught at the prophecy of the day of judgment, and of the Conflagration of the World, using this argument against it, That since the Fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning. All external Nature hath continued the same without any remarkable change or alteration, and why should we believe (say they) there will be any? what appearance or what foundation is there of such a revolution, that all Nature will be dissolved, and the Heavens and the Earth consumed with Fire, as your prophecies pretend? So from the permanency and immutability of Nature hitherto, they argued its permanency and immutability for the future. To this the Apostleanswers, that they are willing to forget that the Heavens and the Earth of old had a particular form and constitution as to Water, by reason whereof the World that then was, perisht by a Deluge. And the Heavens and the Earth that are now, or since the Deluge, have a particular constitution in reference to Fire, by reason whereof they are exposed to another sort of destruction or dissolution, namely by Fire, or by an universal Conflagration. The words of the Apostle are these; For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old, and the Earth, consisting of Water, and by Water; or (as we render it) standing out of the Water, and in the Water; whereby the World that then was, being overflowed with Water, perisht. But the Heavens and the Earth that are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto Fire against the day of Judgment. We shall have occasion, it may be, hereafter to give a full illustration of these words; but at present we shall only take notice of this in general, that the Apostle here doth plainly intimate some difference that was between the Old World and the present World, in their form and constitution; or betwixt the Ante-diluvian and the present Earth, by reason of which difference, that was subject to perish by a Deluge, as this is subject to perish by Conflagration. And as this is the general Air and importance of this discourse of the Apostles, which every one at first sight would discover; so we may in several particular ways Evidence from it our first Proposition, which now we must return to; (viz.) That the form and constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was different from that of the present Earth. This may be infered from the Apostle's discourse, first, because he makes an opposition betwixt these two Earths, or these two natural Worlds; and that not only in respect of their fate, the one perishing by Water, as the other will perish by Fire, but also in respect of their different disposition and constitution leading to this different fate, for otherwise his fifth verseis superfluous, and his Inference in the sixthungrounded; you see he premiseth in the fifth verseas the ground of his discourse, what the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was, and then infers from it in the sixthverse, that they therefore perisht in a Deluge of water. Now if they had been the same with ours, there had neither been any ground for making an opposition betwixt them, nor any ground of making a contrary inference as to their fate. Besides, in that he implies, that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such, as made it subject to a Deluge; he shews, that it was different from the constitution of the present Earth; for the form of that is such, as makes it rather incapable of a Deluge, as we have shewn in the second Chapter. Then we are to observe further, that when he saith (verse6.) that the first World perished in a Deluge, or was destroyed by it; this is not to be understood of the Animate world only, Men and living Creatures, but of the Natural world, and the frame of it; for he had described it before by the Heavens and the Earth, which make the Natural world. And the objection of the Atheists, or Deists rather, which he was to answer, proceeded upon the Natural world. And lastly, this perishing of the World in a Deluge, is set against, or compared with the perishing of the world in the Conflagration, when the frame of Nature will be dissolved. We must therefore, according to the tenor of the Apostle's arguing, suppose, that the Natural world was destroyed or perisht in the Deluge; and seeing it did not perish as to matter and substance, it must be as to the form, frame, and composition of it, that it perisht; and consequently, the present Earth is of another form and frame from what it had before the Deluge; which was the thing to be Evidenced.

Lastly, let us consider what it is the Apostle tells these Scoffers that they were ignorant of: not that there was a Deluge, they could not be ignorant of that; nor doth he tell them that they were; But he tells them that they were ignorant that the Heavens and the Earth of old were so and so constituted, after a different manner than they are now, and that the state of Nature was changed at the Deluge. If they had known or attended to this, they had made no such objection, nor used any such argument as they did against the future Conflagration of the world. They pretended that there had been no change in Nature since the beginning, and the Apostle in answer tells them, that they are willingly ignorant of the first constitution of the Heavens, and the Earth, and of that change and dissolution that happened to them in the Deluge; and how the present Heavens and Earth have another constitution, whereby in like manner they are exposed, in God's due time, to be consumed or dissolved by Fire. This is the plain, easie and natural import of the Apostles discourse; thus all the parts of it are coherent, and the sence genuine and apposite, and this is a full confirmation of our first and general assertion, That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of another form from the present Earth. This hath been observed formerly by some of the Ancients from this Text, but that it hath not been generally observed, was, partly because they had no Theory to back such an interpretation, and make it intelligible; and partly because they did not observe, that the Apostle's discourse here was an argumentation, and not a bare affirmation, or simple contradiction to those that raised the scruple; tis an answer upon a ground taken, he premiseth and then infers; in the fifthand sixthVerses, concerning the Deluge; and in the seventh, concerning the Conflagration. And when I had discovered in my thoughts from the consideration of the Deluge, and other natural reasons, that the Earth was certainly once in another form, it was a great assurance and confirmation to me, when I reflected on this place of St. Peter's; which seems to be so much directed and intended for the same purpose, or to teach us the same conclusion, that though I designed chiefly a Philosophical Theory of these things, yet I should not have thought we had been just to Providence, if we had neglected to take notice of this passage and Sacred evidence; which seems to have been left us on purpose, to excite our enquiries, and strengthen our reasonings, concerning the first state of things. Thus much from Divine Authority: We proceed now to Evidence the same Proposition from Reason and Philosophy, and the contemplation of the Chaos, from whence the first Earth arose.

We need not upon this occasion make a particular description of the Chaos, but only consider it as a Fluid Mass, or a Mass of all sorts of little parts and particles of matter, mixt together, and floating in confusion, one with another. Tis impossible that the surface of this mass should be of such a form and figure, as the surface of our present Earth is. Or that any concretion or consistent state which this mass could flow into immediately, or first settle in, could be of such a form and figure as our present Earth. The first of these Assertions is of easie proof; for a fluid body, we know, whether it be water or any other liquor, always casts it self into a smooth and spherical surface; and if any parts, by chance, or by some agitation, become higher than the rest, they do not continue so, but glide down again every way into the lower places, till they all come to make a surface of the same height, and of the same distance every where from the center of their gravity. A mountain of water is a thing impossible in Nature, and where there are no Mountains, there are no Valleys. So also a Den or Cave within the water, that hath no walls but the liquid Element, is a structure unknown to Art or Nature; all things there must be full within, and even and level without, unless some External force keep them by violence in another posture. But is this the form of our Earth, which is neither regularly made within nor without? The surface and exteriour parts are broken into all sorts of inequalities, Hills and Dales, Mountains and Valleys; and the plainer tracts of it lie generally inclined or bending one way or other, sometimes upon an easie descent, and other times with a more sensible and uneasie steepiness; and though the great Mountains of the Earth were taken all away, the remaining parts would be more unequal than the roughest Sea; whereas the face of the Earth should resemble the face of the calmest Sea, if it was still in the form of its first mass. But what shall we say then to the huge Mountains of the Earth, which lie sometimes in lumps or clusters heapt up by one another, sometimes extended in long ridges or chains for many hundred miles in length? And tis remarkable, that in every Continent, and in every ancient and original Island, there is either such a cluster, or such a chain of Mountains. And can there be any more palpable demonstrations than these are, that the surface of the Earth is not in the same form that the surface of the Chaos was, or that any fluid mass can stand or hold it self in?

Then for the form of the Earth within or under its surface, tis no less impossible for the Chaos to imitate that; for tis full of cavities and empty places, of dens and broken holes, whereof some are open to the Air, and others covered and enclosed wholly within the ground. These are both of them unimitable in any liquid substance, whose parts will necessarily flow together into one continued mass, and cannot be divided into apartments and separate rooms, nor have vaults or caverns made within it; the walls would sink, and the roof fall in: For liquid bodies have nothing to sustain their parts, nor any thing to cement them; they are all loose and incoherent, and in a perpetual flux: Even an heap of Sand, or fine Powder will suffer no hollowness within them, though they be dry substances, and though the parts of them being rough, will hang together a little, and stand a little upon an heap; but the parts of liquors being glib, and continually in motion, they fall off from one another, which way soever gravity inclines them, and can neither have any hills or eminencies on their surface, nor any hollowness within their substance.

You will acknowledge, it may be, that this is true, and that a liquid mass or Chaos, while it was liquid, was incapable of either the outward or inward form of the Earth; but when it came to a concretion, to a state of consistency and firmness, then it might go, you'll say, into any form. No, not in its first concretion, nor in its first state of consistence; for that would be of the same form that the surface of it was when it was liquid; as water, when it congeals, the surface of the Ice is smooth and level, as the surface of the water was before; so Metals, or any other substances melted, or Liquors that of themselves grow stiff and harden, always settle into the same form which they had when they were last liquid, and are always solid within, and smooth without, unless they be cast in a mould, that hinders the motion and flux of the parts. So that the first concrete state or consistent surface of the Chaos, must be of the same form or figure with the last liquid state it was in; for that is the mould, as it were, upon which it is cast; as the shell of an Egg is of the like form with the surface of the liquor it lies upon. And therefore by analogy with all other liquors and concretions, the form of the Chaos, whether liquid or concrete, could not be the same with that of the present Earth, or like it: And consequently, that form of the first or primigenial Earth which rise immediately out of the Chaos, was not the same, nor like to that of the present Earth. Which was the first and preparatory Proposition we laid down to be Evidenced. And this being Evidenced by the authority both of our Reason and our Religion, we will now proceed to the Second which is more particular.

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter V

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER V

The Second Proposition is laid down, viz. Thatthe face of the Earth before the Deluge was smooth, regular and uniform; without Mountains, and without a Sea. The Chaos out of which the World rise is fully examined, and all its motions observed, and by what steps it wrought it self into an habitable World. Some things in Antiquity relating to the first state of the Earth are interpreted, and some things in the Sacred Writings. The Divine Art and Geometry in the construction of the first Earth is observed and celebrated.

WE have seen it Evidenced, in the foregoing Chapter, That the form of the first or Ante-diluvian Earth, was not the same, nor like the form of the present Earth; this is our first discovery at a distance, but tis only general and negative, tells us what the form of that Earth was not, but tells us not expressly what it was; that must be our next enquiry, and advancing one step further in our Theory, we lay down this Second Proposition: That the face of the Earth before the Deluge was smooth, regular, and uniform; without Mountains, and without a Sea. This is a bold step, and carries us into another World, which we have never seen nor ever yet heard any relation of; and a World, it seems, of very different scenes and prospects from ours, or from any thing we have yet known. An Earth without a Sea, and plain as the Elysianfields; if you travel it all over, you will not meet with a Mountain or a Rock, yet well provided of all things requisite for an habitable World; and the same indeed with the Earth we still inhabit, only under another form. And this is the great thing that now comes into debate, the great Paradox which we offer to be examined, and which we affirm, That the Earth in its first rise and formation from a Chaos, was of the form here described, and so continued for many hundreds of years.

To examine and Evidence this, we must return to the beginning of the World, and to that Chaos out of which the Earth and all Sublunary things arose: Tis the motions and progress of this which we must now consider, and what form it setled into when it first became an habitable World.

Neither is it perhaps such an intricate thing as we imagine at first sight, to trace a Chaos into an habitable World; at least there is a particular pleasure to see things in their Origin, and by what degrees and successive changes they rise into that order and state we see them in afterwards, when compleated. I am sure, if ever we would view the paths of Divine Wisdom, in the works and in the conduct of Nature, we must not only consider how things are, but how they came to be so. Tis pleasant to look upon a Tree in the Summer, covered with its green Leaves, deckt with Blossoms, or laden with Fruit, and casting a pleasing shade under its spreading Boughs; but to consider how this Tree with all its furniture, sprang from a little Seed; how Nature shaped it, and fed it, in its infancy and growth; added new parts, and still advanced it by little and little, till it came to this greatness and perfection, this, methinks, is another sort of pleasure, more rational, less common, and which is properly the contemplation of Divine Wisdom in the works of Nature. So to view this Earth, and this Sublunary World, as it is now compleat, distinguisht into the several orders of bodies of which it consists, every one perfect and admirable in its kind; this is truly delightful, and a very good entertainment of the mind; But to see all these in their first Seeds, as I may so say; to take in pieces this frame of Nature, and melt it down into its first principles; and then to observe how the Divine Wisdom wrought all these things out of confusion into order, and out of simplicity into that beautiful composition we now see them in; this, methinks, is another kind of joy, which pierceth the mind more deep, and is more satisfactory. And to give out selves and others this satisfaction, we will first make a short representation of the Chaos, and then shew, how, according to Laws establisht in Nature by the Divine Power and Wisdom, it was wrought by degrees from one form into another, till it setled at length into an habitable Earth; and that of such a frame and structure, as we have described in this second Proposition.

By the Chaos I understand the matter of the Earth and Heavens, without form or order; reduced into a fluid mass, wherein are the materials and ingredients of all bodies, but mingled in confusion one with another. As if you should suppose all sorts of Metals, Gold, Silver, Lead &c. melted down together in a common mass, and so mingled, that the parts of no one Metal could be discerned as distinct from the rest, this would be a little metallick Chaos: Suppose then the Elements thus mingled, Air, Water and Earth, which are the principles of all Terrestrial bodies; mingled, I say, without any order of higher or lower, heavier or lighter, solid or volatile, in such a kind of confused mass as is here represented in this first Scheme.

Let this then represent to us the Chaos; in which the first change that we should imagine to happen would be this, that the heaviest and grossest parts would sink down towards the middle of it, (for there we suppose the center of its gravity) and the rest would float above. These grosser parts thus sunk down and compressed more and more, would harden by degrees, and constitute the interiour parts of the Earth. The rest of the mass, which swims above, would be also divided by the same principle of gravity into two orders of Bodies, the one Liquid like Water, the other Volatile like Air.

Fig 1 Fig 1

For the more fine and active parts disentangling themselves by degrees from the rest, would mount above them; and having motion enough to keep them upon the wing, would play in those open places where they constitute that body we call AIR. The other parts being grosser than these, and having a more languid motion could not fly up and down separate from one another, as these did, but setled in a mass together, under the Air, upon the body of the Earth, composing not only Water strictly so called, but the whole mass of liquors, or liquid bodies, belonging to the Earth. And these first separations being thus made, the body of the Chaos would stand in that form which it is here represented in by the second Scheme.

The liquid mass which encircled the Earth, was not, as I noted before, the meer Element of Water, but a collection of all Liquors that belong to the Earth.

Fig. 2 Fig. 2

I mean of all that do originally belong to it. Now seeing there are two chief kinds of Terrestrial liquors, those that are fat, oily, and light; and those that are lean and more Earthy, like common Water; which two are generally found in compound liquors; we cannot doubt but there were of both sorts in this common mass of liquids. And it being well known, that these two kinds mixt together, if left to themselves and the general action of Nature, separate one from another when they come to settle, as in Cream and thin Milk, Oil and Water, and such like; we cannot but conclude, that the same Effect would follow here, and the more oily and light part of this mass would get above the other, and swim upon it. The whole mass being divided into two lesser masses, and so the Globe would stand as we see it in this third Figure.

Fig. 3 Fig. 3

Hitherto the changes of the Chaos are easie and unquestionable, and would be dispatcht in a short time; we must now look over again these two great masses of the Airand Water, and consider how their impurities or grosser parts would be disposed of; for we cannot imagine but they were both at first very muddy and impure: And as the Water would have its sediment, which we are not here concerned to look after, so the great Regions of the Air would certainly have their sediment too; for the Air was as yet thick, gross, and dark; there being an abundance of little Terrestrial particles swimming in it still, after the grossest were sunk down; which, by their heaviness and lumpish figure, made their way more easily and speedily. The lesser and lighter which remained, would sink too, but more slowly, and in a longer time: so as in their descent they would meet with that oily liquor upon the face of the Deep, or upon the watery mass, which would entangle and stop them from passing any further; whereupon mixing there with that unctious substance, they composed a certain slime, or fat, soft, and light Earth, spread upon the face of the Waters; as tis represented in this fourth Figure.

Fig. 4

This thin and tender Orb of Earth increased still more and more, as the little Earthy parts that were detained in the Air could make their way to it. Some having a long journey from the upper Regions, and others being very light would float up and down a good while, before they could wholly disengage themselves and descend. But this was the general rendezvous, which sooner or later they all got to, and mingling more and more with that oily liquor, they suckt it all up at length, and where wholly incorporate together, and so began to grow more stiff and firm, making both but one substance, which was the first concretion, or firm and consistent substance that rise upon the face of the Chaos. And the whole Globe stood in this posture, as in Fig. the fifth .

It may be, you will say, we take our liberty, and our own time for the separation of these two liquors, the Oily and the Earthy, the lighter and the heavier; and suppose that done before the Air was cleared of Earthy particles, that so they might be catcht and stopt there in their descent. Whereas if all these particles were fallen out of the Air before that separation was made in the liquid mass, they would fall down through the Water, as the first did, and so no concretion would be made, nor any Earthy crust formed upon the face of the Waters, as we here suppose there was. Tis true, there could be no such Orb of Earth formed there, if the Air was wholly purged of all its Earthy parts before the Mass of liquids began to purifie it self, and to separate the Oily parts from the more heavy: But this is an unreasonable and incredible supposition, if we consider, that the mass of the Air was many thousand times greater than the Water, and would in proportion require a greater time to be purified;

Fig. 5

The particles that were in the Regions of the Air having a long way to come before they reacht the Watery mass, and far longer than the Oily particles had to rise from any part of that mass to the surface of it. Besides, we may suppose a great many degrees of littleness and lightness in these Earthy particles, so as many of them might float in the Air a good while, like Exhalations, before they fell down. And lastly, we do not suppose the separation of these two liquors wholly made and finisht before the purgation of the Air began, though we represent them so for distinction sake; Let them begin to purifie at the same time, if you please, these parts rising up-wards, and those falling downwards, they will meet in the middle, and unite and grow into one body, as we have described. And this body or new concretion would be increased daily, being fed and supplied both from above and below; and having done growing, it would become more dry by degrees, and of a temper of greater consistency and firmness, so as truly to resemble and be fit to make an habitable Earth, such as Nature intended it for.

But you will further object, it may be, that such an effect as this would indeed be necessary in some degree and proportion, but not in such a proportion, and in such quantity as would be sufficient to make this crust or concrete Orb an habitable Earth. This I confess appeared to me at first a real difficulty, till I considered better the great disproportion there is betwixt the Regions of the Air and the Circumference of the Earth, or of that exteriour Orb of the Earth, we are now a making; which being many thousand times less in depth and extent than the Regions of the Air, taken as high as the Moon, though these Earthy particles, we speak of, were very thinly dispersed through those vast tracts of the Air, when they came to be collected and amassed together upon the surface of a far lesser Sphere, they would constitute a body of a very considerable thickness and solidity. We see the Earth sometimes covered with Snow two or three feet deep, made up only of little flakes or pieces of Ice, which falling from the middle Region of the Air, and meeting with the Earth in their descent, are there stopt and heapt up one upon another. But if we should suppose little particles of Earth to shower down, not only from the middle Region, but from the whole capacity and extent of those vast spaces that are betwixt us and the Moon, we could not imagine but these would constitute an Orb of Earth some thousands of times deeper than the greatest Snow; which being increased and swoln by that oily liquor it fell into, and incorporated with, it would be thick, strong, and great enough in all respects to render it an habitable Earth.

We cannot doubt therefore but such a body as this would be formed, and would be sufficient in quantity for an habitable Earth. Then for the quality of it, it will answer all the purposes of a Rising World. What can be a more proper Seminary for Plants and Animals, than a soil of this temper and composition? A finer and lighter sort of Earth mixt with a benign Juice, easie and obedient to the action of the Sun, or of what other causes were imployed by the Author of Nature, for the production of things in the new-made Earth. What sort or disposition of matter could be more fit and ready to catch life from Heaven, and to be drawn into all forms that the rudiments of life, or the bodies of living Creatures would require? What soil more proper for Vegetation than this warm moisture, which could have no fault, unless it was too fertile and luxuriant? and that is no fault neither at the beginning of a World. This I am sure of, that the learned amongst the Ancients, 1 both Greeks, Egyptians, Phnicians, and others, have described the primigenial soil, or the temper of the Earth, that was the first subject for the Generation and Origin of Plants and Animals, after such a manner, as is truly expressed, and I think with advantage, by this draught of the primigenial Earth.

Thus much concerning the matter of the first Earth. Let us reflect a little upon the form of it also, whether External or Internal; whereof both do manifestly shew themselves from the manner of its production or formation. As to the External form, you see it is according to the Proposition we were to Evidence, smooth, regular and uniform, without Mountains, and without a Sea. And the proof we have given of it is very easie; The Globe of the Earth could not possibly rise immediately from a Chaos into the irregular form in which it is at present. The Chaos being a fluid mass, which we know doth necessarily fall into a Spherical surface, whose parts are equi-distant from the Center, and consequently in an equal and even convexity one with another. And seeing upon the distinction of a Chaos and separation into several Elementary masses, the Water would naturally have a superiour place to the Earth, tis manifest, that there could be no habitable Earth formed out of the Chaos, unless by some concretion upon the face of the Water. Then lastly, seeing this concrete Orb of Earth upon the face of the Water would be of the same form with the surface of the Water it was spread upon, there being no causes, that we know of, to make any inequality in it, we must conclude it equal and uniform, and without Mountains; as also without a Sea; for the Sea and all the mass of Waters was enclosed within this exteriour Earth, which had no other basis or foundation to rest upon.

The contemplation of these things, and of this posture of the Earth upon the Waters, doth so strongly bring to mind certain passages of Scripture, that we cannot, without injury to truth, pass them by in silence. Passages that have such a manifest resemblance and agreement to this form and situation of the Earth, that it is not possible to believe, but that they allude to it, or rather literally express it; such are those expressions of the Psalmist, God hath founded the Earth upon the Seas. And in another Psalm, speaking of the wisdom and power of God in the Creation, he saith, To him who alone doth great wonders; to him that by wisdom made the Heavens; to him that extended or stretched out the Earth above the Waters. What can be more plain and positive to denote that form of the Earth that we have described, and to express particularly the inclosure of the Waters within the Earth, as we have represented them? He saith in another place; By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made he shut up the Waters of the Sea as in Bags, (for so the word is to be rendered, and is rendered by all, except the English) and laid up the Abysse as in store-houses. We cannot easily imagine any thing more express, or more conformable to that System of the Earth and Sea, which we have proposed here. Yet there is something more express than all this in that remarkable place in the Evidencerbsof Solomon, where Wisdomdeclaring her Antiquity and Existence before the foundation of the Earth, amongst other things, saith; When he prepared the Heavens, I was there: When he drew an Orb over the surface of the Abysse; or when he set an Orb upon the face of the Abysse. We render it in the Englisha Compass, or Circle, but tis more truly rendred an Orb or Sphere; and what Orb or Spherical body was this, which at the formation of the Earth was built and placed round about the Abysse; but that wonderful Arch, whose form and production we have described, encompassing the mass of Waters, which in Scripture is often called the Abysse or Deep? Lastly, this Scheme of the first Earth gives light to that place we mentioned before of St. Peter's, where the first Earth is said to consist of Water and by Water: and by reason thereof was obnoxious to a Deluge. The first part of this character is plain from the description now given: and the second will appear in the following Chapter. In the mean time, concerning these passages of Scripture, which we have cited, we may truly and modestly say, that though they would not, it may be, without a Theory premised, have been taken or interpreted in this sence, yet this Theory being premised, I dare appeal to any unprejudiced person, if they have not a fairer and easier, a more full and more emphatical sence, when applied to that form of the Earth and Sea, we are now speaking of, than to their present form, or to any other we can imagine.

Thus much concerning the external form of the first Earth. Let us now reflect a little upon the Internal form of it, which consists of several Regions, involving one another like Orbs about the same Center, or of the several Elements cast circularly about each other; as it appears in the Fourth and Fifth Figure. And as we have noted the External form of this primal Earth, to have been markt and celebrated in the Sacred Writings; so likewise in the Philosophy and Learning of the Ancients, there are several remains and indications of this Internal form and composition of it. For tis observable, that the Ancients in treating of the Chaos, and in raising the World out of it, ranged it into several Regions or Masses, as we have done; and in that order successively, rising one from another, as if it was a Pedigree or Genealogy. And those Parts and Regions of Nature, into which the Chaos was by degrees divided, they signified commonly by dark and obscure names, as the Night, Tartarus, Oceanus, and such like, which we have expressed in their plain and proper terms. And whereas the Chaos, when it was first set on work, ran all into divisions, and separations of one Element from another, which afterwards were all in some measure united and associated in this primigenial Earth; the Ancients accordingly made Contentionthe principle that reigned in the Chaos at first, and then Love: The one to express the divisions, and the other the union of all parties in this middle and common bond. These, and such like notions which we find in the writings of the Ancients figuratively and darkly delivered, receive a clearer light, when compared with this Theory of the Chaos; which representing every thing plainly, and in its natural colours, is a Key to their thoughts, and in allustration of their obscurer Philosophy, concerning the Original of the World; as we have shewn at large in the LatinTreatise.

Fig. 6

There is another thing in Antiquity, relating to the form and construction of the Earth, which is very remarkable, and hath obtained throughout all learned Nations and Ages. And that is the comparison or resemblance of the Earth to an Egg. And this is not so much for its External Figure, though that be true too: as for the inward composition of it; consisting of several Orbs, one including another, and in that order, as to answer the several Elementary Regions of which the new-made Earth was constituted. For if we admit for the Yolka Central fire (which, though very reasonable, we had no occasion to take notice of in our Theory of the Chaos) and suppose the Figure of the Earth Oval, and a little extended towards the Poles, as probably it was; those two bodies do very naturally represent one another; as in this Scheme, which represents the Interiour faces of both, a divided Egg, or Earth. Where, as the two inmost Regions A. B. represent the Yolk and the Membrane that lies next about it; so the Exteriour Region of the Earth (D) is as the Shell of the Egg, and the Abysse (C) under it as the White that lies under the Shell. And considering that this notion of the Mundane Egg,or that the World was Oviform, hath been the sence and Language of all Antiquity, Latins, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and others, as we have shewed elsewhere; I thought it worthy our notice in this place; seeing it receives such a clear and easie explication from that Origin and Fabrick we have given to the first Earth, and also reflects light upon the Theory it self, and confirms it to be no fiction: This notion, which is a kind of Epitome or Image of it, having been conserved in the most ancient Learning.

Thus much concerning the first Earth, its production and form; and concerning our Second Proposition relating to it: Which being Evidenced by Reason, the laws of Nature, and the motions of the Chaos; then attested by Antiquity, both as to the matter and form of it; and confirmed by Sacred Writers, we may take it now for a well established truth, and proceed upon this supposition, That the Ante-diluvian Earth was smooth and uniform, without Mountains or Sea, to the explication of the universal Deluge.

Give me leave only before we proceed any further, to annex here a short Advertisement, concerning the causes of this wonderful structure of the first Earth. Tis true, we have proposed the Natural Causes of it, and I do not know wherein our Explication is false or defective; but in things of this kind we may easily be too credulous. And this structure is so marvellous, that it ought rather to be considered as a particular effect of the Divine Art, than as the work of Nature. The whole Globe of the Water vaulted over, and the Exteriour Earth hanging above the Deep, sustained by nothing but its own measures and manner of construction: A Building without foundation or corner-stone. This seems to be a piece of Divine Geometry or Architecture; and to this, I think, is to be refered that magnificent challenge which God Almighty made toJob; Where vast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth? declare if thou hast understanding; Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest; or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned, or who laid the corner-stone thereof? When the morning Stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Moses also when he had described the Chaos, saith, The spirit of God moved upon, or sat brooding upon, the face of the waters; without all doubt to produce some effects there. And S. Peter, when he speaks of the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth, how it stood in reference to the Waters, 1 adds, By the Word of God, or by the Wisdomof God it was made so. And this same Wisdom of God, in the Evidencerbs, as we observed before, takes notice of this very piece of work in the formation of the Earth. When he set an Orb over the face of the Deep I was there. And lastly, the Ancient Philosophers, or at least the best of them, to give them their due, always brought in 1 Mensor Amor, as a Supernatural principle to unite and consociate the parts of the Chaos; which was first done in the composition of this wonderful Arch of the Earth. Whereforeto the great Architect, who made the boundless Universe out of nothing, and formed the Earth out of a Chaos, let the praise of the whole Work, and particularly of this Master-piece, for ever with all honour be given.

Footnotes

60:1 λς ωροτος γενς.
63:1 Τ λόγ το Θεο.
64:1 Λόγος & ρως

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

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Book I: Chapter III

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER III

All Evasions answered; That there was no new Creation of waters at the Deluge: And that it was not particular or National, but extended throughout the whole Earth. A prelude and preparation to the true Account and Explication of it: The method of the first Book.

THOUGH in the preceeding Chapter we may seem to have given a fair trial 1 to the common opinion concerning the state of the Deluge, and might now proceed to sentence of condemnation; yet having heard of another plea, which some have used in its behalf, and another way found out by recourse to the Supream Power, to supply all defects, and to make the whole matter intelligible, we will proceed no further till that be considered; being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offered, in that or any other way, for resolving that great difficulty which we have proposed, concerning the quantity of water requisite for such a Deluge. And to this they say in short, that God Almighty created waters on purpose to make the Deluge, and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease; And this, in a few words, is the whole account of the business. This is to cut the knot when we cannot loose it; They show us the naked arm of Omni-potency; such Arguments as these come like lightning, one doth not know what Armour to put on against them, for they pierce the more, the more they are resisted: We will not therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn, but by a soft answer deaden their force by degrees.

And I desire to mind those persons in the first place of what St. Austinhath said upon a like occasion, speaking concerning those that disEvidenced the opinion of waters above the Heavens (which we mentioned before) by natural Reasons. "We are not, saith he, to refute those persons, by saying, that according to the Omnipotence of God, to whom all things are possible, we ought to believe there are waters there as heavy as we know and feel them here below; for our business is now to enquire according to his Scripture, how God hath constituted the Nature of things, and not what he could do or work in these things by a miracle of Omnipotency." I desire them to apply this to the present argument for the first answer.

Secondly, let them consider, that Moseshath assigned causes of the Deluge; Forty days Rain, and the disruption of the Abysse; and speaks nothing of a new creation of water upon that occasion. Those were causes in Nature which Providence had then disposed for this extraordinary effect, and those the Divine Historian refers us to, and not to any productions out of nothing. Besides, Mosesmakes the Deluge increase by degrees with the Rain, and accordingly makes it cease by degrees, and that the waters going and returning, as the waves and great commotions of the Sea use to do, retied leisurely from the face of the Earth, and setled at length in their Chanels. Now this manner of the beginning or ceasing of the Deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous actions of Creation and Annihilation.

Thirdly, let them consider, that St. Peterhath also assigned Causes of the Deluge; namely the particular constitution of the Earth and Heavens before the Flood; "by reason whereof, he saith, the World that was then, perisht in a Deluge of water." And not by reason of a new creation of water. His words are these, "The Heavens and the Earth were of old, consisting of water, and by water; whereby, or by reason whereof, the World that then was, being overflowed with water, perished."

Fourthly, they are to consider, that as we are not rashly to have recourse to the Divine Omnipotence upon any account, so especially not for new Creations; and least of all for the creation of new matter. The matter of the Universe was created many Ages before the Flood, and the Universe being full, if any more was created, then there must be as much annihilated at the same time to make room for it; for Bodies cannot penetrate one anothers dimensions, nor be two or more within one and the same space. Then on the other hand, when the Deluge ceased, and these waters were annihilated, so much other matter must be created again to take up their places: And methinks they make very bold with the Deity, when they make him do and undo, go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions, as we do not willingly impute to the wisdom of God Almighty.

Lastly, I shall not think my labour lost, if it be but acknowledged, that we have so far cleared the way in this controversie, as to have brought it to this issue; That either there must be new waters created on purpose to make a Deluge, or there could be no Deluge, as ’tis vulgarly explained; there not being water sufficient in Nature to make a Deluge of that kind. This, I say, is a great step, and, I think, will satisfie all parties, at least all that are considerable; for those that have recourse to a new Creation of waters, are of two sorts, either such as do it out of laziness and ignorance, or such as do it out of necessity, seeing they cannot be had otherwise; as for the first, they are not to be valued or gratified; and as for the second, I shall do a thing very acceptable to them, if I free them and the argument from that necessity, and show a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible, and accountable without the creation of new waters; which is the design of this Treatise. For we do not tye this knot with an Intention to puzzle and perplex the Argument finally with it, but the harder it is tyed, we shall feel the pleasure more sensibly when we come to loose it.

It may be when they are beaten from this new Creation of water, they will say the Element of Air was changed into water, and that was the great storehouse for the Deluge. Forty days Rain we allow, as Moses does, but if they suppose any other transelementation, it neither agrees with Moses's Philosophy, nor St. Peter's; for then the opening of the Abyssewas needless, and the form and constitution of the Ante-diluvian Heavensand Earth, which St. Peterrefers the Deluge to, bore no part in the work; it might have been made, in that way, indifferently under any Heavens or Earth. Besides, they offend against St. Austin's rule in this method too; for I look upon it as no less a miracle to turn Air into Water, than to turn Water into Wine. Air, I say, for Vapours indeed are but water made volatile, but pure Air is a body of another Species, and cannot by any compression or condensation, so far as is yet known, be changed into water. And lastly, if the whole Atmosphere was turned into water, ’tis very probable it would make no more than 34 foot or thereabouts; for so much Air or Vapours as is of the same weight with any certain quantity of water, ’tis likely, if it was changed into water, would also be of the same bulk with it, or not much more: Now according to the doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere, ’tis found that 34 foot of water does counterbalance a proportionable Cylinder of Air reaching to the top of the Atmosphere; and consequently, if the whole Atmosphere was converted into water, it would make no more than eleven or twelve yards water about the Earth; Which the cavities of the Earth would be able in a good measure to suck up, at least this is very inconsiderable as to our eight Oceans. And if you would change the higher Regions into water too, what must supply the place of that Air which you transform into water, and bring down upon the Earth? There would be little but Fire and Æther betwixt us and the Moon, and I am afraid it would endanger to suck down the Moon too after it. In a word, such an explication as this, is both purely imaginary, and also very operose, and would affect a great part of the Universe; and after all, they would be as hard put to’t to get rid of this water, when the Deluge was to cease, as they were at first to procure it.

Having now examined and answered all the pleas, from first to last, for the vulgar Deluge, or the old way of explaining it, we should proceed immediately to propose another method, and another ground for an universal Deluge, were it not that an opinion hath been started by some of late, that would in effect supplant both these methods, old and new, and take away in a great measure the subject of the question. Some modern Authors observing what straits they have been put to in all Ages, to find out water enough for Noah's Flood, have ventured upon an expedient more brisk and bold, than any of the Ancients durst venture upon: They say, Noah's Flood was not Universal, but a National Inundation, confined to Judæa, and those Countries thereabouts; and consequently, there would not be so much water necessary for the cause of it, as we have Evidenced to be necessary for an Universal Deluge of that kind. Their inference is very true, they have avoided that rock, but they run upon another no less dangerous; to avoid an objection from reason, they deny matter of fact, and such matter of fact as is well attested by History, both Sacred and prophane. I believe the Authors that set up this opinion, were not themselves satisfied with it: but seeing insuperable difficulties in the old way, they are the more excusable in chusing, as they thought, of two evils the less.

But the choice, methinks, is as bad on this hand, if all things be considered; Mosesrepresents the Flood of Noahas an overthrow and destruction of the whole Earth; and who can imagine, that in sixteen or seventeen hundred years time (taking the lower Chronology) that the Earth had then stood, mankind should be propagated no further than Judæa, or some neighbouring Countries thereabouts. After the Flood, when the World was renewed again by eight persons, they had made a far greater progress in Asia, Europeand Africa, within the same space of years, and yet ’tis likely they were more fruitful in the first Ages of the World, than after the Flood; and they lived six, seven, eight, nine hundred years a piece, getting Sons and Daughters. Which longevity of the first Inhabitants of the Earth seems to have been providentially designed for the quicker multiplication and propagation of mankind; and mankind thereby would become so numerous within sixteen hundred years, that there seems to me to be a greater difficulty from the multitude of the people that would be before the Flood, than from the want of people. For if we allow the first couple at the end of one hundred years, or of the first Century, to have left ten pair of Breeders, which is no hard supposition, there would arise from these, in fifteen hundred years, a greater number than the Earth was capable of; allowing every pair to multiply in the same decuple proportion the first pair did. But because this would rise far beyond the capacities of this Earth, let us suppose them to increase, in the following Centuries, in a quintuple proportion only, or, if you will, only in a quadruple; and then the Table of the multiplication of mankind from the Creation to the Flood, would stand thus;

Century	1	..	10	9	..	655360
	2	..	40	10	..	2621440
	3	..	160	11	..	10485760
	4	..	640	12	..	41943040
	5	..	2560	13	..	167772160
	6	..	10240	14	..	671088640
	7	..	40960	15	..	2684354560
	8	..	163840	16	..	10737418240

This product is too excessive high, if compared with the present number of men upon the face of the Earth, which I think is commonly estimated to be betwixt three and four hundred millions; and yet this proportion of their increase seems to be low enough, if we take one proportion for all the Centuries; for, in reality, the same measure cannot run equally through all the Ages, but we have taken this as moderate and reasonable betwixt the highest and the lowest; but if we had taken only a triple proportion, it would have been sufficient (all things considered) for our purpose. There are several other ways of computing this number, and some more particular and exact than this is, but which way soever you try, you will find the product great enough for the extent of this Earth; and if you follow the Septuagint Chronology it will still be far higher. I have met with three or four different Calculations, in several Authors, of the number of mankind before the Flood, and never met with any yet, but what exceeded the number of the people that are at present upon the face of the Earth. So as it seems to me a very groundless and forced conceit to imagine, that Judæaonly, and some parts about it in Asia, were stored with people when the Deluge was brought upon the old World. Besides, if the Deluge was confined to those Countries, I do not see but the Borderers might have escaped, shifting a little into the adjoining places where the Deluge did not reach. But especially what needed so much a-do to build an Ark to save Noahand his family, if he might have saved himself, and them, only by retiring into some neighbouring Countrey; as Lotand his family saved themselves, by withdrawing from Sodom, when the City was to be destroyed? Had not this been a far easier thing, and more compendious, than the great preparations he made of a large Vessel, with Rooms for the reception and accommodation of Beasts and Birds? And now I mention Birds, why could not they at least have flown into the next dry Country; they might have pearched upon the Trees and the tops of the Mountains by the way to have rested themselves if they were weary, for the waters did not all of a sudden rise to the Mountains tops.

I cannot but look upon the Deluge as a much more considerable thing than these Authors would represent it, and as a kind of dissolution of Nature. Moses calls it a destroying of the Earth, as well as of mankind, Gen. 6. 13. And the Bow was set in the Cloud to seal the Covenant, that he would destroy the Earth no more, Gen. 9. 11. or that there should be no more a Flood to destroy the Earth. And ’tis said, verse13. that the Covenant was made between God and the Earth, or this frame of Nature, that it should perish no more by water. And the Rain-bow, which was a token and pledge of this Covenant, appears not only in Judæa, or some other AsiatickProvinces, but to all the Regions of the Earth, who had an equal concern in it. Mosessaith also the Fountains of the great Abysse were burst asunder to make the Deluge, and what means this Abysse and the bursting of it, if restrained to Judæa, or some adjacent Countries? What appearance is there of this disruption there more than in other places? Furthermore, St. Peterplainly implies, that the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth perisht in the Deluge; and opposeth the present Earth and Heavens to them, as different and of another constitution: and saith, that these shall perish by Fire, as the other perisht by water. So he compares the Conflagration with the Deluge, as two general dissolutions of Nature, and one may as well say, that the Conflagration shall be only National, and but two or three Countries burnt in that last Fire, as to say that the Deluge was so. I confess that discourse of St. Peter, concerning the several States of the World, would sufficiently convince me, if there was nothing else, that the Deluge was not a particular or National Inundation, but a mundanechange, that extended to the whole Earth, and both to the Heavens and the Earth.

All Antiquity, we know, hath spoke of these mundane Revolutions or Periods, that the World should be successively destroyed by Water and Fire; and I do not doubt but that this Deluge of Noah's, which Mosesdescribes, was the first and leading instance of this kind: And accordingly we see that after this Period, and after the Flood, the blessing for multiplication, and for replenishing the Earth with Inhabitants, was as solemnly pronounced by God Almighty, as at the first Creation of man, Gen. 9. 1. with Gen. 1. 28. These considerations, I think, might be sufficient to give us assurance from Divine Writ of the universality of the Deluge, and yet Mosesaffords us another argument as demonstrative as any, when in the History of the Deluge, he saith, Gen. 7. 19. The waters exceedingly prevailed upon the Earth, and all the high Hills that were under the whole Heavens were covered. All the high Hills, he saith, under the whole Heavens, then quite round the Earth; and if the Mountains were covered quite round the Earth, sure the Plains could not scape. But to argue with them upon their own grounds; Let us suppose only the Asiatickand ArmenianMountains covered with these waters, this they cannot deny; then unless there was a miracle to keep these waters upon heaps, they would flow throughout the Earth; for these Mountains are high enough to make them fall every way, and make them joyn with our Seas that environ the Continent. We cannot imagine Hills and Mountains of water to have hung about Judæa, as if they were congealed, or a mass of water to have stood upon the middle of the Earth like one great drop, or a trembling jelly, and all the places about it dry and untouched. All liquid bodies are diffusive; for their parts being in motion have no tye or connexion one with another, but glide and fall off any way, as gravity and the Air presseth them; so the surface of water doth always conform into a Spherical convexity with the rest of the Globe of the Earth, and every part of it falls as near to the Center as it can; wherefore when these waters began to rise at first, long before they could swell to the heighth of the Mountains, they would diffuse themselves every way, and thereupon all the Valleys and Plains, and lower parts of the Earth would be filled throughout the whole Earth, before they could rise to the tops of the Mountains in any part of it: And the Sea would be all raised to a considerable heighth before the Mountains could be covered. For let's suppose, as they do, that this water fell not throughout the whole Earth, but in some particular Country, and there made first a great Lake; this Lake when it begun to swell would every way discharge it self by any descents or declivities of the ground, and these issues and derivations being once made, and supplied with new waters pushing them forwards, would continue their course till they arrived at the Sea; just as other Rivers do, for these would be but so many Rivers rising out of this Lake, and would not be considerably deeper and higher at the Fountain than in their progress or at the Sea. We may as well then expect that the Leman-Lake, for instance, out of which the Rhoneruns, should swell to the tops of the Alpeson the one hand, and the Mountains of Switzerlandand Burgundyon the other, and then stop, without overflowing the plainer Countries that lie beyond them; as to suppose that this Diluvian Lake should rise to the Mountains tops in one place, and not diffuse it self equally into all Countries about, and upon the surface of the Sea: in proportion to its heighth and depth in the place where it first fell or stood.

Thus much for Sacred History. The universality of the Deluge is also attested by profane History; for the fame of it is gone through the Earth, and there are Records or Traditions concerning it, in all parts of this and the new-found World. The Americansdo acknowledge and speak of it in their Continent, as Acostawitnesseth, and Laetin their Histories of them. The Chineseshave the Tradition of it, which is the farthest part of our Continent; and the nearer and Western parts of Asiais acknowledged the proper seat of it. Not to mention Deucalion's Deluge in the European parts, which no question is the same under a disguise: So as you may trace the Deluge quite round the Globe in profane History; and which is remarkable, every one of these people have a tale to tell, some one way, some another, concerning the restauration of mankind; which is an argument that they thought all mankind destroyed by that Deluge. In the old dispute between the Scythiansand the Ægyptiansfor Antiquity, which Justinmentions, they refer to a former destruction of the World by Water or Fire, and argue whether Nation first rise again, and was original to the other. So the Babylonians, Assyrians, Phœniciansand others, mention the Deluge in their stories. And we cannot without offering violence to all Records and Authority, Divine and Humane, deny that there hath been an universal Deluge upon the Earth; and if there was an universal Deluge, no question it was that of Noah's, and that which Moses described, and that which we treat of at present.

These considerations I think are abundantly sufficient to silence that opinion, concerning the limitation and restriction of the Deluge to a particular Country or Countries. It ought rather to be lookt upon as an Evasion indeed than Opinion, seeing the Authors do not offer any positive argument for the proof of it, but depend only upon that negative argument, that an universal Deluge is a thing unintelligible. This stumbling-stone we hope to take away for the future, and that men shall not be put to that unhappy choice, either to deny matter of fact well attested, or admit an effect, whereof they cannot see any possible causes. And so having stated and proposed the whole difficulty, and tryed all ways offered by others, and found them ineffectual, let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot.

The excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty, and the removal of it afterwards. Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts, and I cast about every way to find an expedient, or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less water, and in such a manner, that that water might afterwards conveniently be discharged. The first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion, was concerning the form of the Earth, which I thought might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present, and might come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it, and so might the more easily be overflowed, and the Deluge performed with less water. This opinion concerning the plainness of the first Earth, I also found in Antiquity, mentioned and refered to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis, either upon occasion of the Deluge, or of that Fountain which is said, Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the face of the whole Earth: And a late eminent person, the honour of this profession for Integrity and Learning, in his discourse concerning the Origination of mankind, hath made a like judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge, that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now. But yet upon second thoughts, I easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the Deluge, nor to give an account of the present form of the Earth, unequal and Mountainous as it is. ’Tis true this would give a great advantage to the waters, and the Rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the Earth, being plain and smooth; but how would these waters be disposed of when the Deluge ceased? or how could it ever cease? Besides, what means the disruption of the great Deep, or the great Abysse, or what answers to it upon this supposition? This was assuredly of no less consideration than the Rains, nay I believe the Rains were but preparatory in some measure, and that the violence and consummation of the Deluge depended upon the disruption of the great Abysse. Therefore I saw it necessary, to my first thought, concerning the smoothness and plainness of the Ante-diluvian Earth, to add a second, concerning the disruption and dissolution of it; for as it often happens in Earthquakes, when the exteriour Earth is burst asunder, and a great Flood of waters issues out, according to the quantity and force of them, an Inundation is made in those parts, more or less; so I thought, if that Abysse lay under ground and round the Earth, and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken, in several places at once, and as it were a general dissolution made, we might suppose that to make a general Deluge, as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular. But I will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal Deluge in the following Chapters, only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes, it may be, that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fancy it.

Give me leave to add farther in this place, that it hath been observed by several, from the contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices, of the Chanel of the Sea, and of Islands, and of Subterraneous Caverns, that the surface of the Earth, or the exteriour Region which we inhabit, hath been broke, and the parts of it dislocated: And one might instance more particularly in several parcels of Nature, that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine; and by their present form and posture show, that they have been once in another state and situation one to another. We shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these Phænomena, from which several have rightly argued and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the Earth. But this ruine, it is true, they have imagined and explained several ways, some thinking that it was made the third dayafter the foundation of the Earth; when they suppose the Chanel of the Sea to have been formed, and Mountains and Caverns at the same time; by a violent depression of some parts of the Earth, and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room. Others suppose it to have come not all at once, but by degrees, at several times, and in several Ages, from particular and accidental causes, as the Earth falling in upon Fires under ground, or water eating away the lower parts, or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out, and tearing the Earth. ’Tis true, I am not of their opinion in either of these Explications; and we shall show at large hereafter, when we have proposed and stated our own Theory, how incompetent such causes are to bring the Earth into that form and condition we now find it in. But in the mean time, we may so far make use of these Opinions in general, as not to be startled at this Doctrine, concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour Earth; for in all Ages the face of Nature hath provoked men to think of and observe such a thing. And who can do otherwise, to see the Elements displaced and disordered, as they seem to lie at present; the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places, and the liquid and volatile kept below; an huge mass of Stone or Rock reared into the Air, and the water creeping at its feet; whereas this is the more light and active body, and by the law of Nature should take place of Rocks and Stones? So we see, by the like disorder, the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth, and the Earth got up among the Clouds; for there are the tops of the Mountains, and under their roots in holes and Caverns the Air is often detained. By what regular action of Nature can we suppose things first produced in this posture and form? not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the Earth is, which of it self is an uniform mass, close and compact: but in the condition we see it, it lies hollow in many places, with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it; a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less, especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible. Then what can have more the figure and mien of a ruine, than Crags and Rocks and Cliffs, whether upon the Sea shore, or upon the sides of Mountains; what can be more apparently broke, than they are; and those lesser Rocks, or great bulky Stones that lie often scattered near the feet of the other, whether in the Sea, or upon the Land, are they not manifest fragments, and pieces of those greater masses? Besides, the posture of these Rocks, which is often leaning or recumbent, or prostrate, shows to the eye, that they have had a fall, or some kind of dislocation from their Natural site. And the same thing may be observed in the Tracts and Regions of the Earth, which very seldom for ten miles together have any regular surface or continuity one with another, but lie high and low, and are variously inclined sometimes one way, sometimes another, without any rule or order. Whereas I see no reason but the surface of the Land should be as regular as that of the water, in the first production of it. This I am sure of, that this disposition of the Elements, and the parts of the Earth, outward and inward, hath something irregular and unnatural in it, and manifestly shews us the marks or footsteps of some kind of ruine and dissolution; which we shall shew you, in its due place, happened in such a way, that at the same time a general Flood of waters would necessarily over-run the face of the whole Earth. And by the same fatal blow, the Earth fell out of that regular form, wherein it was produced at first, into all these irregularities which we see in its present form and composition; so that we shall give thereby a double satisfaction to the mind, both to shew it a fair and intelligible account of the general Deluge, how the waters came upon the Earth, and how they returned into their Chanels again, and left the Earth habitable; and likewise to shew it how the Mountains were brought forth, and the Chanel of the Sea discover'd: Flow all those inequalities came in the body or face of the Earth, and those empty Vaults and Caverns in its bowels; which things are no less matter of admiration than the Flood it self.

But I must beg leave to draw a Curtain before the work for a while, and to keep your patience a little in suspence, till materials are prepared, and all things ready to represent and explain what we have proposed. Yet I hope in the mean time to entertain the mind with scenes no less pleasing, though of quite another face and order: for we must now return to the beginning of the World, and look upon the first rudiments of Nature, and that dark, but fruitful womb, out of which all things sprang, I mean the Chaos: For this is the matter which we must now work upon, and it will be no unpleasing thing to observe, how that rude mass will shoot it self into several forms, one after another, till it comes at length to make an habitable World. The steddy hand of Providence, which keeps all things in weight and measure, being the invisible guide of all its motions. These motions we must examine from first to last, to find out what was the form of the Earth, and what was the place or situation of the Ocean, or the great Abysse, in that first state of Nature: Which two things being determined, we shall be able to make a certain judgment, what kind of dissolution that Earth was capable of, and whether from that dissolution an Universal Deluge would follow, with all the consequences of it.

In the mean time, for the ease and satisfaction of the Reader, we will here mark the order and distribution of the first Book, which we divide into three Sections; whereof the first is these three Chapters past: In the second Section we will shew, that the Earth before the Deluge was of a different frame and form from the present Earth; and particularly of such a form as made it subject to a dissolution: And to such a dissolution, as did necessarily expose it to an universal Deluge. And in this place we shall apply our discourse particularly to the explication of Noah's Flood, and that under all its conditions, of the height of the waters, of their universality, of the destruction of the World by them, and of their retiring afterwards from the Earth; and this Section will consist of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Chapters. In the third Section we Evidence the same dissolution from the effects and consequences of it, or from the contemplation of the present face of the Earth: And here an account is given of the Origin of Mountains, of subterraneous Waters and Caverns, of the great Chanel of the Sea, and of the first production of Islands; and those things are the Contents of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Chapters. Then, in the last Chapter, we make a general review of the whole Work, and a general review of Nature; that, by comparing them together, their full agreement and correspondency may appear. Here several collateral arguments are given for confirmation of the preceeding Theory, and some reflections are made upon the state of the other Planets compared with the Earth. And lastly, what accounts soever have been given by others of the present form and irregularities of the Earth, are examined and shewed insufficient. And this seemeth to be all that is requisite upon this subject.

September 25, 2011
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Published in The Sacred theory of the Earth
Written by LC Geerts

Book I: Chapter II

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER II

A general account ofNoah's Flood; A computation what quantity of Water would be necessary for the making of it; that the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible.

’TIS now more than Five Thousand years since our World was made, and though it would be a great pleasure to the mind, to recollect and view at this distance those first Scenes of Nature: what the face of the Earth was when fresh and new, and how things differed from the state we now find them in, the speculation is so remote, that it seems to be hopeless, and beyond the reach of Humane Wit. We are almost the last Posterity of the first Men, and fain into the dying Age of the World; by what footsteps, or by what guide, can we trace back our way to those first Ages, and the first order of things? And yet, methinks, it is reasonable to believe, that Divine Providence, which sees at once throughout all the Ages of the World, should not be willing to keep Mankind finally and fatally ignorant of that part of Nature, and of the Universe, which is properly their Task and Province to manage and understand. We are the Inhabitants of the Earth, the Lords and Masters of it; and we are endowed with Reason and Understanding; doth it not then properly belong to us to examine and unfold the works of God in this part of the Universe, which is fain to our lot, which is our heritage and habitation? And it will be found, it may be, upon a stricter Enquiry, that in the present form and constitution of the Earth, there are certain marks and Indications of its first State; with which if we compare those things that are recorded in Sacred History, concerning the first Chaos, Paradise, and an universal Deluge, we may discover, by the help of those Lights, what the Earth was in its first Original, and what Changes have since succeeded in it.

And though we shall give a full account of the Origin of the Earth in this Treatise, yet that which we have proposed particularly for the Title and Subject of it, is to give an account of the primæval PARADISE, and of the universal DELUGE: Those being the two most important things that are explained by the Theory we propose. And I must beg leave in treating of these two, to change the order, and treat first of the Deluge, and then of Paradise: For though the State of Paradise doth precede that of the Flood in Sacred History, and in the nature of the thing, yet the explication of both will be more sensible, and more effectual, if we begin with the Deluge; there being more Observations and Effects, and those better known to us, that may be refered to this, than to the other; and the Deluge being once truly explained, we shall from thence know the form and Quality of the Ante-diluvian Earth. Let us then proceed to the explication of that great and fatal Inundation, whose History is well known; and according to Moses, the best of Historians, in a few words is this--

Sixteen Hundred and odd years after the Earth was made, and inhabited, it was overflowed, and destroyed in a Deluge of water. Not a Deluge that was National only, or over-run some particular Country or Region, as Judeaor Greece, or any other, but it overspread the face of the whole Earth, from Pole to Pole, and from East to West, and that in such excess, that the Floods over-reacht the Tops of the highest Mountains; the Rains descending after an unusual manner, and the fountains of the Great Deepbeing broke open; so as a general destruction and devastation was brought upon the Earth, and all things in it, Mankind and other living Creatures; excepting only Noahand his Family, who by a special Providence of God were preserved in a certain Ark, or Vessel made like a Ship, and such kinds of living Creatures as he took in to him. After these waters had raged for some time on the Earth, they began to lessen and shrink, and the great waves and fluctuations of this Deepor Abysse, being quieted by degrees, the waters retied into their Chanels and Caverns within the Earth; and the Mountains and Fields began to appear, and the whole habitable Earth in that form and shape wherein we now see it. Then the World began again, and from that little Remnant preserved in the Ark, the present race of Mankind, and of Animals, in the known parts of the Earth, were propagated. Thus perisht the old World, and the present arose from the ruines and remains of it.

This is a short story of the greatest thing that ever yet hapned in the world, the greatest revolution and the greatest change in Nature; and if we come to reflect seriously upon it, we shall find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to give an account of the waters that composed this Deluge, whence they came or whither they went. If it had been only the Inundation of a Country, or of a Province, or of the greatest part of a Continent, some proportionable causes perhaps might have been found out; but a Deluge overflowing the whole Earth, the whole Circuit and whole Extent of it, burying all in water, even the greatest Mountains, in any known parts of the Universe, to find water sufficient for this Effect, as it is generally explained and understood, I think is impossible. And what we may the better judge of the whole matter, let us first compute how much water would be requisite for such a Deluge, or to lay the Earth, considered in its present form, and the highest Mountains, under water. Then let's consider whether such a quantity of water can be had out of all the stores that we know in Nature: And from these two we will take our Ground and Rise, and begin to reflect, whether the World hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common opinion and explication of the general Deluge.

To discover how much water would be requisite to make this Deluge, we must first suppose enough to cover the plain surface of the Earth, the Fields and lower Grounds; then we must heap up so much more upon this as will reach above the tops of the highest Mountains; so as drawing a Circle over the tops of the highest Mountains quite round the Earth, suppose from Pole to Pole, and another to meet it about the middle of the Earth, all that space or capacity contained within these Circles is to be filled up with water. This I confess will make a prodigious mass of water, and it looks frightfully to the imagination; ’tis huge and great, but ’tis extravagantly so, as a great Monster: It doth not look like the work of God or Nature: However let's compute a little more particularly how much this will amount to, or how many Oceans of water would be necessary to compose this great Ocean rowling in the Air, without bounds or banks.

If all the Mountains were pared off the Earth, and so the surface of it lay even, or in an equal convexity every where with the surface of the Sea, from this surface of the Sea let us suppose that the height of the Mountains may be a mile and an half; or that we may not seem at all to favour our own opinion or calculation, let us take a mile only for the perpendicular height of the Mountains. Let us on the other side suppose the Sea to cover half the Earth, as ’tis generally believed to do; and the common depth of it, taking one place with another, to be about a quarter of a mile or 250 paces. I say, taking one place with another, for though the middle Chanel of the great Ocean be far deeper, we may observe, that there is commonly a descent or declivity from the shore to the middle part of the Chanel, so that one comes by degrees into the depth of it; and those shory parts are generally but some fathoms deep. Besides, in arms of the Sea, in Straits and among Islands, there is commonly no great depth, and some places are plain shallows. So as upon a moderate computation, one place compared with another, we may take a quarter of a mile, or about an hundred fathoms, for the common measure of the depth of the Sea, if it were cast into a Chanel of an equal depth every where. This being supposed, there would need four Oceans to lie upon this Ocean, to raise it up to the top of the Mountains, or so high as the waters of the Deluge rise; then four Oceans more to lie upon the Land, that the water there might swell to the same height; which together make eight Oceans for the proportion of the water required in the Deluge.

’Tis true, there would not be altogether so much water required for the Land as for the Sea, to raise them to an equal height; because Mountains and Hills would fill up part of that space upon the Land, and so make less water requisite. But to compensate this, and confirm our computation, we must consider in the first place, that we have taken a much less height of the Mountains than is requisite, if we respect the Mediterraneous Mountains, or those that are at a great distance from the Sea; For their height above the surface of the Sea, computing the declivity of the Land all along from the Mountains to the Sea-side (and that there is such a declivity is manifest from the course and descent of the Rivers) is far greater than the proportion we have taken: For the height of Mountains is usually taken from the foot of them, or from the next plain, which if it be far from the Sea, we may reasonably allow as much for the declension of the Land from that place to the Sea, as for the immediate height of the Mountain; So, for instance, the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, whence the Nileflows, and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt, are so much higher than the surface of that Sea, first, as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains, and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top: For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain, or of a mountainous Land, in respect of the Sea: And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed, there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains; And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of water that would be requisite upon the Land. Besides, we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth, so as if an Ocean poured upon the surface of the dry Land, supposing it were all smooth, would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where; the like quantity of water poured again at the height of the Mountains, would not have altogether the same effect, or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher; for the surfaces of a Globe, the farther they are from their Center, are the greater; and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them. And, lastly, we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low, and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth, all which in this case were to be first filled with water. These things being compared and estimated, we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land, there would be at least eight Oceans required, or a quantity of water eight times as great as the Ocean, to bring an universal Deluge upon the Earth, as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained.

The proportion of water for the Deluge being thus stated, the next thing to be done, is to enquire where this water is to be found; if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much: Eight Oceans floating in the Air, make a great bulk of water, I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from. There are the Clouds above, and the Deeps below, and in the bowels of the Earth; and these are all the stores we have for water; and Mosesdirects us to no other for the causes of the Deluge. The Fountains(he saith) of the great Abysse were broken up, or burst asunder, and the Rain descended for forty days, the Cataractsor Floodgatesof Heaven being opened. And in these two, no doubt, are contained the causes of the great Deluge, as according to Moses, so also according to reason and necessity; for our World affords no other treasures of water. Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of forty days might amount to, and how much might flow out of the Abysse, that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want.

As for the Rains, they would not afford us one Ocean, nor half an Ocean, nor the tenth part of an Ocean, if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of water that falls in Rain. Mersennusgives us this account of it. "It appears by our Observations, that a Cubical Vessel of Brass, whereof we made use, is filled an inch and an half in half an hours time; but because that sucks up nothing of the moisture as the Earth doth, let us take an inch for half an hours Rain; whence it follows, that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain, the waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet, if the Rains were constant and equal to ours, and that it rained at once throughout the face of the whole Earth." But the Rain of the Deluge, saith he, should have been 90 times greater than this, to cover, for instance, the Mountains of Armenia, or to reach 15 Cubits above them. So that according to his computation, the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the water requisite to make the Deluge. ’Tis true, he takes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do; but, however, if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please, the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge. If it rained 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth, in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once, it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water, but it would signifie very little as to the overflowing of the Mountains.

Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage. "If the Deluge had been made by Rains only, there would not have needed 40 days, but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass." And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condensed into water, it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect, according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water; for they say, Air turned into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before. The truth is, we may reasonably suppose, that all the vapours of the middle Region were turned into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain, if we admit, that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once, in either Hemisphere, in every Zone, in every Climate, in every Country, in every Province, in every Field; and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to.

Having done then with these Superiour Regions, we are next to examine the Inferiour, and the treasures of water that may be had there. Mosestells us, that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open, or clove asunder, as the word there used doth imply; and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge, as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explained; but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse, in the common explication of the Deluge; and ’tis commonly interpreted either to be the Sea, or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth: These, they say, broke forth and raised the waters, caused by the Rain, to such an height, that together they overflowed the highest Mountains. But whether or how this could be, deserves to be a little examined.

And in the first place; the Sea is not higher than the Land, as some have formerly imagined; fansying the Sea stood, as it were, upon a heap, higher than the shore; and at the Deluge a relaxation being made, it overflowed the Land. But this conceit is so gross, and so much against reason and experience, that none I think of late have ventured to make use of it. And yet on the other hand, if the Sea lie in an equal convexity with the Land, or lower generally than the shore, and much more than the mid-land, as it is certainly known to do, what could the Sea contribute to the Deluge? It would keep its Chanel, as it doth now, and take up the same place. And so also the Subterraneous waters would lie quiet in their Cells; whatsoever Fountains or passages you suppose, these would not issue out upon the Earth, for water doth not ascend, unless by force. But let's imagine then that force used and applied, and the waters both of the Sea and Caverns under ground drawn out upon the surface of the Earth, we shall not be any whit the nearer for this; for if you take these waters out of their places, those places must be filled again with other waters in the Deluge; so as this turns to no account upon the whole. If you have two Vessels to fill, and you empty one to fill the other, you gain nothing by that, there still remains one Vessel empty; you cannot have these waters both in the Sea and on the Land, both above ground and under; nor can you suppose the Chanel of the Sea would stand gaping without water, when all the Earth was overflowed, and the tops of the Mountains covered. And so for Subterraneous Cavities, if you suppose the water pumpt out, they would suck it in again when the Earth came to be laid under water; so that upon the whole, if you thus understand the Abysseor great Deep, and the breaking open its Fountainsin this manner, it doth us no service as to the Deluge, and where we expected the greatest supply, there we find none at all.

What shall we do then? whither shall we go to find more than seven Oceans of water that we still want? We have been above and below; we have drained the whole middle Region, and we have examined the Deeps of the Earth; they must want for themselves, they say, if they give us any; And, besides, if the Earth should disgorge all the water that it hath in its bowels, it would not amount to above half an Ocean, which would not at all answer our occasions. Must we not then conclude, that the common explication of the Deluge makes it impossible? there being no such quantity of water in Nature as they make requisite for an universal Deluge. Yet to give them all fair play, having examined the waters above the Earth, or in the Air, the waters upon the Earth, and the waters under the Earth; let us also consider if there be not waters above the Heavens, and if those might not be drawn down for the Deluge. Mosesspeaks of waters above the firmament, which though it be generally understood of the middle Region of the Air, especially as it was constituted before the Deluge, yet some have thought those to be waters placed above the highest Heavens, or Super-celestial waters: and have been willing to make use of them for a supply, when they could not find materials enough under the Heavens to make up the great mass of the Deluge. But the Heavens above, where these waters lay, are either solid, or fluid; if solid, as Glass or Crystal, how could the waters get through ’em to descend upon the Earth? If fluid, as the Air or Æther, how could the waters rest upon them? For Water is heavier than Air or Æther; So that I am afraid those pure Regions will Evidence no fit place for that Element, upon any account. But supposing these waters there, how imaginary soever, and that they were brought down to drown the World in that vast quantity that would be necessary, what became of them when the Deluge ceased? Seven or eight Oceans of water, with the Earth wrapt up in the middle of them, how did it ever get quit of them? how could they be disposed of when the Earth was to be dried, and the World renewed? It would be a hard task to lift them up again among the Spheres, and we have no room for them here below. The truth is, I mention this opinion of the Heavenly waters, because I would omit none that had ever been made use of to make good the common explication of the Deluge; but otherwise, I think, since the System of the World hath been better known, and the Nature of the Heavens, there are none that would seriously assert these Super-celestial waters, or, at least, make use of them so extravagantly, as to bring them down hither for causes of the Deluge.

We have now employed our last and utmost endeavours to find out waters for the vulgar Deluge, or for the Deluge as commonly understood; and you see with how little success; we have left no corner unsought, where there was any appearance or report of water to be found, and yet we have not been able to collect the eighth part of what was necessary upon a moderate account. May we not then with assurance conclude, that the World hath taken wrong measures hitherto in their notion and explication of the general Deluge? They make it impossible and unintelligible upon a double account, both in requiring more water than can be found, and more than can be disposed of, if it was found: or could any way be withdrawn from the Earth when the Deluge should cease. For if the Earth was encompassed with eight Oceans of water heapt one upon another, how these should retire into any Chanels, or be drained off, or the Earth any way disengaged from them, is not intelligible; and that in so short a time as some months: For the violence of the Deluge lasted but four or five months, and in as many months after the Earth was dry and habitable. So as upon the whole enquiry, we can neither find source nor issue, beginning nor ending, for such an excessive mass of waters as the Vulgar Deluge required; neither where to have them, nor if we had them, how to get quit of them. And I think men cannot do a greater injury or injustice to Sacred History, than to give such representations of things recorded there, as to make them unintelligible and incredible; As on the other hand, we cannot deserve better of Religion and Providence, than by giving such fair accounts of all things proposed by them, or belonging to them, as may silence the Cavils of Atheists, satisfie the inquisitive, and recommend them to the belief and acceptance of all reasonable persons.

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Book I: Chapter I

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER I

THE INTRODUCTION

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

SINCE I was first inclind to the Contemplation of Nature, and took pleasure to trace out the Causes of Effects, and the dependance of one thing upon another in the visible Creation, I had always, methought, a particular curiosity to look back into the first Sources and ORIGINAL of Things; and to view in my mind, so far as I was able, the Beginning and Progress of a RISING WORLD.

And after some Essays of this Nature, and, as I thought, not unsuccessful, I carried on my enquiries further, to try whether this Rising World, when formd and finisht, would continue always the same; in the same form, structure, and consistency; or what changes it would successively undergo, by the continued action of the same Causes that first producd it; And, lastly, what would be its final Period and Consummation. This whole Series and compass of things taken together, I calld a COURSE OF NATURE, or a SYSTEM OF NATURAL PROVIDENCE; and thought there was nothing belonging to the External World more fit or more worthy our study and meditation, nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the ways of Divine Providence, and to show us the grounds of all true knowledge concerning Nature. And therefore to clear up the several parts of this Theory, I was willing to lay aside a great many other Speculations, and all those dry subtleties with which the Schools, and the Books of Philosophers, are usually filld.

But when we speak of a Rising World, and the Contemplation of it, we do not mean this of the Great Universe; for who can describe the Original of that? But we speak of the Sublunary World, This Earth and its dependencies, which rose out of a Chaos about six thousand years ago; And seeing it hath fain to our lot to act upon this Stage, to have our present home and residence here, it seems most reasonable, and the place designd by Providence, where we should. first imploy our thoughts to understand the works of God and Nature. We have accordingly therefore designd in this Work to give an account of the Original of the Earth, and of all the great and general changes that it hath already undergone, or is hence forwards to undergo, till the Consummation of all things. For if from those Principles we have here taken, and that Theory we have begun in these two first Books, we can deduce with success and clearness the Origin of the Earth, and those States of it that are already past; Following the same Thred, and by the conduct of the same Theory, we will pursue its Fate and History through future Ages, and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it while Day and Night shall last; that is, so long as it continues an Earth.

By the States of the Earth that are already past, we understand chiefly Paradiseand the Deluge; Names well known, and as little known in their Nature. By the Future States we understand the Conflagration, and what new Order of Nature may follow upon that, till the whole Circle of Time and Providence be corn-pleated. As to the first and past States of the Earth, we shall have little help from the Ancients, or from any of the Philosophers, for the discovery or description of them; We must often tread unbeaten paths, and make a way where we do not find one; but it shall be always with a Light in our hand, that we may see our steps, and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly. There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the Universal Deluge, or discoverd, from the contemplation of the Earth, that there had been such a thing already in Nature. Tis true, they often talk of an alternation of Delugesand Conflagrationsin this Earth, but they speak of them as things to come; at least they give no proof or argument of any that hath already destroyed the World. As to Paradise, it seems to be represented to us by the Golden Age; whereof the Ancients tell many stories, sometimes very luxuriant, and sometimes very defective: For they did not so well understand the difference betwixt the New-made Earth and the Present, as to see what were the just grounds of the Golden Age, or of Paradise: Tho they had many broken Notions concerning those things. As to the Conflagrationin particular, This hath always been reckond One amongst the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks, That the World was to be destroyd by Fire, and their Books are full of this Notion; but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration, nor what preparations there are in Nature, or will be, towards that great Change. And we may generally observe this of the Ancients, that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions, than in Demonstrations; They had many truths among them, whereof they did not know themselves the premisses or the proofs: Which is an argument to me, that the knowledge they had, was not a thing of their own invention, or which they came to by fair reasoning and observations upon Nature, but was delivered to them from others by Tradition and Ancient fame, sometimes more publick, sometimes more secret: These Conclusions they kept in mind, and communicated to those of their School, or Sect, or Posterity, without knowing, for the most part, the just grounds and reasons of them.

Tis the Sacred writings of Scripture that are the best monuments of Antiquity, and to those we are chiefly beholden for the History of the first Ages, whether Natural History or Civil. Tis true, the Poets, who were the most ancient Writers amongst the Greeks, and servd them both for Historians, Divines, and Philosophers, have deliverd some things concerning the first Ages of the World, that have a fair resemblance of truth, and some affinity with those accounts that are given of the same things by sacred Authors, and these may be of use in due time and place; but yet, lest any thing fabulous should be mixt with them, as commonly there is, we will never depend wholly upon their credit, nor assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients which is not first provd by natural Reason, or warranted by Scripture.

It seems to me very reasonable to believe, that besides the precepts of Religion, which are the principal subject and design of the Books of holy Scripture, there may be providentially conservd in them the memory of things and times so remote, as could not be retrievd, either by History, or by the light of Nature; and yet were of great importance to be known, both for their own excellency, and also to rectifie the knowledge of men in other things consequential to them: Such points may be, Our great Epochaor the Age of the Earth, The Origination of mankind, The first and Paradisiacal state, The destruction of the Old World by an universal Deluge, The longevity of its inhabitants, The manner of their preservation, and of their peopling the Second Earth; and lastly, The Fate and Changes it is to undergo. These I always lookt upon as the Seeds of great knowledge, or heads of Theories fixt on purpose to give us aim and direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them. But these heads, you see, are of a mixt order, and we propose to our selves in this Work only such as belong to the Natural World; upon which I believe the trains of Providence are generally laid; And we must first consider how God hath orderd Nature, and then now the Oeconomy of the Intellectual World is adapted to it; for of these two parts consists the full System of Providence. In the mean time, what subject can be more worthy the thoughts of any serious person, than to view and consider the Rise and Fall, and all the Revolutions, not of a Monarchy or an Empire, of the Grecianor RomanState, but of an intire World.

The obscurity of these things, and their remoteness from common knowledge will be made an argument by some, why we should not undertake them; And by others, it may be, the very same thing will be made an argument why we should; for my part I think There is nothing so secret that shall not be brought to Light, within the compass of Our World; for we are not to understand that of the whole Universe, nor of all Eternity, our capacities do not extend so far; But whatsoever concerns this Sublunary World in the whole extent of its duration, from the Chaos to the last period, this I believe Providence hath made us capable to understand, and will in its due time make it known. All I say, betwixt the first Chaos and the last Completion of Time and all things temporary, This was given to the disquisitions of men; On either hand is Eternity, before the World and after, which is without our reach: But that little spot of ground that lies betwixt those two great Oceans, this we are to cultivate, this we are Masters of, herein we are to exercise our thoughts, to understand and lay open the treasures of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness hid in this part of Nature and of Providence.

As for the difficulty or obscurity of an argument, that does but add to the pleasure of contesting with it, when there are hopes of victory; and success does more than recompence all the pains. For there is no sort of joy more grateful to the mind of man, than that which ariseth from the invention of Truth; especially when tis hard to come by. Every man hath a delight suited to his Genius, and as there is pleasure in the right exercise of any faculty, so especially in that of Right-reasoning; which is still the greater, by how much the consequences are more clear, and the chains of them more long: There is no Chase so pleasant, methinks, as to drive a Thought, by good conduct, from one end of the World to the other; and never to lose sight of it till it fall into Eternity, where all things are lost as to our knowledge.

This Theory being chiefly Philosophical, Reason is to be our first Guide; and where that falls short, or any other just occasion offers itself, we may receive further light and confirmation from the Sacred writings. Both these are to be lookt upon as of Divine Original, God is the Author of both; He that made the Scripture made also our Faculties, and twere a reflection upon the Divine Veracity, for the one or the other to be false when rightly usd. We must therefore be careful and tender of opposing these to one another, because that is, in effect, to oppose God to himself. As for Antiquity and the Testimonies of the Ancients, we only make general reflections upon them, for illustration rather than proof of what we propose; not thinking it proper for an English Treatise to multiply citations out of Greek or Latin Authors.

I am very sensible it will be much our interest, that the Reader of this Theory should be of an ingenuous and unprejudicd temper; neither does it so much require Book-learning and Scholarship, as good natural sence to distinguish True and False, and to discern what is well provd, and what is not. It often happens that Scholastick Education, like a Trade, does so fix a man in a particular way, that he is not fit to judge of any thing that lies out of that way; and so his Learning becomes a clog to his natural parts, and makes him more indocile, and more incapable of new thoughts and new imEvidencements, than those that have only the Talents of Nature. As Masters of exercise had rather take a Scholar that never learnd before, than one that hath had a bad Master; so generally one would rather chuse a Reader without art, than one ill-instructed; with learning, but opinionative and without judgment: yet it is not necessary they should want either, and Learning well placd strengthens all the powers of the mind. To conclude, just reasoning and a generous love of Truth, whether with or without Erudition, is that which makes us most competent Judges what is true; and further than this, in the perusal and examination of this Work, as to the Author as much candor as you please, but as to the Theory we require nothing but attention and impartiality.

September 25, 2011
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Contents Book 1 and 2

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS

THE FIRST BOOK

CHAPTER I

THE Introduction; An account of the whole Work, of the extent and general Order of it.

CHAPTER II

A general account of Noah's Flood. A computation what quantity of Water would be necessary for the making of it; That the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible.

CHAPTER III

All Evasions concerning the Flood answered; That there was no new Creation of Waters at the Deluge; and that it was not particular or National, but extended throughout the whole Earth. A prelude and preparation to the true account and explication of it. The method of the first Book.

CHAPTER IV

That the Earth and Mankind had an Original, and were not from Eternity; Evidenced against Aristotle. The first proposition of our Theory laid down, viz. That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of a different Form and Construction from the present. This is Evidenced from Divine Authority, and from the Nature and Form of the Chaos, out of which the Earth was made.

CHAPTER V

The Second Proposition is laid down, viz. That the face of the Earth before the Deluge was smooth, regular and uniform; without Mountains, and without a Sea. The Chaos out of which the World rise is fully examined, and all its motions observed, and by what steps it wrought it self into an habitable World. Some things in Antiquity relating to the first state of the Earth are interpreted, and some things in the Sacred Writings. The Divine Art and Geometry in the construction of the first Earth is observed and celebrated.

CHAPTER VI

The Dissolution of the First Earth: The Deluge ensuing thereupon. And the form of the present Earth rising from the Ruines of the First.

CHAPTER VII

That the Explication we have given of an Universal Deluge is not anIDEA only, but an account of what really came to pass in the Earth, and the true explication ofNoah's Flood. An examination ofTehom-Rabba, or the Great Abysse, and that by it the Sea cannot be understood, nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present; What the true Notion and Form of it was, collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers. Observations onDeucalion's Deluge.

CHAPTER VIII

The particular History ofNoah's Flood is explained in all the material parts and circumstances of it, according to the preceding Theory. Any seeming difficulties removed, and the whole Section concluded with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an Ordinary Providence, and how far of an Extraordinary.

CHAPTER IX

The Second Part of this Discourse, proving the same Theory from the Effects and the present Form of the Earth. First, by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe, and then by a more particular induction; beginning with an account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters.

CHAPTER X

Concerning the Chanel of the Sea, and the Original of it; The causes of its irregular form and unequal depths: As also of the Original of Islands, their situation, and other properties.

CHAPTER XI

Concerning the Mountains of the Earth, their greatness and irregular Form, their Situation, Causes and Origin.

CHAPTER XII

A short review of what hath been already treated of, and in what manner. All methods, whether Philosophical or Theological, that have been offered by others for the explication of the Form of the Earth, are examined and refuted. A conjecture concerning the other Planets, their Natural Form and State compared with ours; Especially concerningJupiter andSaturn.

THE SECOND BOOK

CHAPTER I

THE Introduction and Contents of the Second Book. The general state of the Primal Earth, and of Paradise.

CHAPTER II

The great change of the World since the Flood from what it was in the first Ages. The Earth under its present Form could not be Paradisiacal, nor any part of it.

CHAPTER III

The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present Post-diluvian. The three Characters ofParadise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth. A particular explication of each Character.

CHAPTER IV

A Digression, concerning the Natural Causes of Longity. That the Machine of an Animal consists of Springs, and which are the two principal. The Age of the Ante-diluvians to be computed bySolar, notLunar Years.

CHAPTER V

Concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth: What the state of the Regions of the Air was then, and how all Waters proceeded from them. How the Rivers arose, what was their Course, and how they ended. Several things in Sacred Writ that confirm this Hydrography of the first Earth, especially the Post-diluvian Origin of the Rain-bow.

CHAPTER VI

A Recollection and review of what hath been said concerning the Primitive Earth, with a more full Survey of the state of the first World, Natural and Civil, and the comparison of it with the present World.

CHAPTER VII

Concerning the place of Paradise; It cannot be determined from the Theory only, nor from Scripture only; What the sense of Antiquity was concerning it, as to the Jews and Heathens, and especially as to the Christian Fathers; That they generally placed it out of this Continent, in the Southern Hemisphere.

CHAPTER VIII

The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity; The Chaos of the Ancients explained; The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone; The change of the Poles of the World; The Doctrine of the Mundane Egg; HowAmerica was first peopled; HowParadise within the Circle of the Moon.

CHAPTER IX

A general Objection against this Theory, viz. That if there had been such aPrimitive Earth, as we pretend, the fame of it would have sounded throughout all Antiquity. The Eastern and Western Learning considered, the most considerable Records of both are lost; what foot steps remain relating to this subject. The Jewish and Christian Learning considered, how far lost as to this Argument, and what Notes or Traditions remain. Lastly, How far the Sacred Writings bear witness to it. The Providential conduct of Knowledge in the World. A Recapitulation and state of the Theory.

CHAPTER X

Concerning the AUTHOR of NATURE.

CHAPTER XI

Concerning Natural Providence. Several misrepresentations of it, and false methods of Contemplation; Preparatives to the true Method, and a true representation of the Universe. The MundaneIdea, and the Universal System of Providence; Several subordinate Systems, That of our Earth and Sublunary World; The Course and Periods of it; How much of this is already treated of, and what remains. Conclusion.

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The Sacred theory of the Earth (191)

Containing an Account

OF THE

Original of the Earth

AND OF ALL THE

GENERAL CHANGES

Which it hath already undergone

OR

IS TO UNDERGO

Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things

by Thomas Burnet

The Second Edition,

LONDON

Printed by R. Norton, for Walter Kettilby, at the Biƒhops-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard

[1691]

Children categories

by Ignatius Donnelly

[1882]

OR

THE DIVIDING OF THE WAY

BY

PHYLOS THE THIBETAN

THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL.

BY

IGNATIUS DONNELLY

AUTHOR OF "ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD."

[1883]

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone, OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Courƒe of its Duration.

THE SECOND BOOK

Concerning thePRIMÆVAL EARTH, AND ConcerningPARADISE.

LONDON,

Printed by R. Norton, for Walter Kettilby, at the Biƒhops-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1691.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER XII

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER XI

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER X

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER IX

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VII

Footnotes

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VI

Footnotes

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH