THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

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 Origin of the Rainbow.

HAVING thus far cleared our way to Paradise, and given a rational account of its general properties; before we proceed to discourse of the place of it, there is one affair of moment, concerning this Primitive Earth, that must first be stated and explained; and that is, Howit was watered; from what causes, and in what manner. How could Fountains rise, or Rivers flow in an Earth of that Form and Nature? We have shut up the Sea with thick walls on every side, and taken away all communication that could be ’twixt it and the external Earth; and we have removed all the Hills and the Mountains where the Springs use to rise, and whence the Rivers descend to water the face of the ground: And lastly, we have left no issue for these Rivers, no Ocean to receive them, nor any other place to disburden themselves into: So that our New-found World is like to be a dry and barren Wilderness, and so far from being Paradisiacal, that it would scarce be habitable.

I confess there was nothing in this whole Theory that gave so rude a stop to my thoughts, as this part of it, concerning the Rivers of the first Earth; how they rise, how they flowed, and how they ended. It seemed at first, that we had wiped away at once the Notion and whole Doctrine of Rivers; we had turned the Earth so smooth, that there was not an Hill or rising for the head of a Spring, nor any fall or descent for the course of a River: Besides, I had suckt in the common opinion of Philosophers, That all Rivers rise from the Sea, and return to it again; and both those passages, I see, were stopt up in that Earth. This gave me occasion to reflect upon the modern, and more solid opinion, concerning the Origin of Fountains and Rivers, That they rise chiefly from Rains and melted Snows, and not from the Sea alone; and as soon as I had undeceived my self in that particular, I see it was necessary to consider, and examine, how the Rains fell in that first Earth, to understand what the state of their Waters and Rivers would be.

And I had no sooner applied my self to that Inquiry, but I easily discovered, that the Order of Nature in the Regions of the Air, would be then very different from what it is now, and the Meteorology of that World was of another sort from that of the present. The Air was always calm and equal, there could be no violent Meteors there, nor any that proceeded from extremity of Cold; as Ice, Snow or Hail; nor Thunder neither; for the Clouds could not be of a quality and consistency fit for such an effect, either by falling one upon another, or by their disruption. And as for Winds, they could not be either impetuous or irregular in that Earth; seeing there were neither Mountains nor any other inequalities to obstruct the course of the Vapours; nor any unequal Seasons, or unequal action of the Sun, nor any contrary and strugling motions of the Air: Nature was then a stranger to all those disorders. But as for watery Meteors, or those that rise from watery Vapours more immediately, as Dews and Rains, there could not but be plenty of these, in some part or other of that Earth; for the action of the Sun in raising Vapours, was very strong and very constant, and the Earth was at first moist and soft, and according as it grew more dry, the Rays of the Sun would pierce more deep into it, and reach at length the great Abysse which lay underneath, and was an unexhausted storehouse of new Vapours. But, ’tis true, the same heat which extracted these Vapours so copiously, would also hinder them from condensing into Clouds or Rain, in the warmer parts of the Earth; and there being no Mountains at that time, nor contrary Winds, nor any such causes to stop them or compress them, we must consider which way they would tend, and what their course would be, and whether they would any where meet with causes capable to change or condense them; for upon this, ’tis manifest, would depend the Meteors of that Air, and the Waters of that Earth.

And as the heat of the Sun was chiefly towards the middle parts of the Earth, so the copious Vapours raised there were most rarified and agitated; and being once in the open Air, their course would be that way, where they found least resistance to their motion; and that would certainly be towards the Poles, and the colder Regions of the Earth. For East and West they would meet with as warm an Air, and Vapours as much agitated as themselves, which therefore would not yield to their progress that way; but towards the North and the South, they would find a more easie passage, the Cold of those parts attracting them, as we call it, that is, making way to their motion and dilatation without much resistance, as Mountains and Cold places usually draw Vapours from the warmer. So as the regular and constant course of the Vapours of that Earth, which were raised chiefly about the Æquinoctial and middle parts of it, would be towards the extream parts of it, or towards the Poles.

And in consequence of this, when these Vapours were arrived in those cooler Climats, and cooler parts of the Air, they would be condensed into Rain; for wanting there the cause of their agitation, namely the heat of the Sun, their motion would soon begin to languish, and they would fall closer to one another in the form of Water. For the difference betwixt Vapours and Water is only gradual, and consists in this, that Vapours are in a flying motion, separate and distant each from another; but the parts of Water are in a creeping motion, close to one another, like a swarm of Bees, when they are setled; as Vapours resemble the same Bees in the Air before they settle together. Now there is nothing puts these Vapours upon the wing, or keeps them so, but a strong agitation by Heat; and when that fails, as it must do in all colder places and Regions, they necessarily return to Water again. Accordingly therefore we must suppose they would soon, after they reacht these cold Regions, be condensed, and fall down in a continual Rain or Dew upon those parts of the Earth. I say a continualRain; for seeing the action of the Sun, which raised the Vapours, was (at that time) always the same, and the state of the Air always alike, nor any cross Winds, nor any thing else that could hinder the course of the Vapours towards the Poles, nor their condensation when arrived there; ’tis manifest there would be a constant Source or store-house of Waters in those parts of the Air, and in those parts of the Earth.

And this, I think, was the establisht order of Nature in that World, this was the state of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth; all their Waters came from above, and that with a constant supply and circulation; for when the croud of Vapours, raised about the middle parts of the Earth, found vent and issue this way towards the Poles, the passage being once opened, and the Chanel made, the Current would be still continued without intermission; and as they were dissolved and spent there, they would suck in more and more of those which followed, and came in fresh streams from the hotter Climates. Aristotle, I remember, in his Meteors, speaking of the course of the Vapours, saith, there is a River in the Air, constantly flowing betwixt the Heavens and the Earth, made by the ascending and descending Vapours; This was more remarkably true in the Primitive Earth, where the state of Nature was more constant and regular; there was indeed an uninterrupted flood of Vapours rising in one Region of the Earth, and flowing to another, and there continually distilling in Dews and Rain, which made this Aereal River. As may be easily apprehended from this Scheme of the Earth and Air.

Fig. 1

Thus we have found a Source for Waters in the first Earth, which had no communication with the Sea; and a Source that would never fail, neither diminish or overflow, but feed the Earth with an equal supply throughout all the parts of the year. But there is a second difficulty that appears at the end of this, Howthese Waters would flow upon the even surface of the Earth, or form themselves into Rivers; there being no descent or declivity for their course. There were no Hills, nor Mountains, nor high Lands in the first Earth, and if these Rains fell in the Frigid Zones, or towards the Poles, there they would stand, in Lakes and Pools, having no descent one way more than another; and so the rest of the Earth would be no better for them. This, I confess, appeared as great a difficulty as the former, and would be unanswerable, for ought I know, if that first Earth had been exactly Spherical; but we noted before, that it was Oval or Oblong; and in such a Figure, ’tis manifest, the Polar parts are higher than the Æquinoctial, that is, more remote from the Center, as appears to the eye in this Scheme. This affords us a present remedy, and sets us free of the second difficulty; for by this means the Waters which fell about the extream parts of the Earth, would have a continual descent towards the middle parts of it; this Figure gives them motion and distribution; and many Rivers and Rivulets would flow from those Mother-Lakes to refresh the face of the Earth, bending their course still towards the middle parts of it.

Fig. 2

’Tis true, these derivations of the Waters at first would be very irregular and diffuse, till the Chanels were a little worn and hollowed; and though that Earth was smooth and uniform, yet ’tis impossible upon an inclining surface, but that Waters should find a way of creeping downwards, as we see upon a smooth Table, or a flagged Pavement, if there be the least inclination, Water will flow from the higher to the lower parts of it, either directly, or winding to and fro: So the smoothness of that Earth would be no hinderance to the course of the Rivers, provided there was a general declivity in the site and libration of it, as ’tis plain there was from the Poles towards the Æquator. The Current indeed would be easie and gentle all along, and if it chanced in some places to rest or be stopt, it would spread it self into a pleasant Lake, till by fresh supplies it had raised its Waters so high, as to overflow and break loose again; then it would pursue its way, with many other Rivers its companions, through all the temperate Climates, as far as the Torrid Zone.

But you'll say, when they were got thither, what would become of them then? Howwould they end or finish their course? This is the third difficulty, concerningthe ending of the Rivers in that Earth; what issue could they have when they were come to the middle parts of it, whither, it seems, they all tended. There was no Sea to lose themselves in, as our Rivers do; nor any Subterraneous passages to throw themselves into; how would they die, what would be their fate at last? I answer, The greater Rivers, when they were come towards those parts of the Earth, would be divided into many branches, or a multitude of Rivulets; and those would be partly exhaled by the heat of the Sun, and partly drunk up by the dry and sandy Earth. But how and in what manner this came to pass, requires a little further Explication.

We must therefore observe in the first place, that those Rivers as they drew nearer to the Æquinoctial parts, would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course; that is evident from the Oval Figure of the Earth, for near the middle parts of an Oval, the Semidiameters, as I may call them, are very little shorter one than another; and for this reason the Rivers, when they were advanced towards the middle parts of the Earth, would begin to flow more slowly, and by that weakness of their Current, suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets; or else, having no force to wear a Chanel, would lie shallow upon the ground like a plash of Water; and in both cases their Waters would be much more exposed to the action of the Sun, than if they had kept together in a deeper Chanel, as they were before.

Secondly, we must observe, that seeing these Waters could not reach to the middle of the Torrid Zone, for want of descent; that part of the Earth having the Sun always perpendicular over it, and being refresht by no Rivers, would become extreamly dry and parched, and be converted at length into a kind of sandy Desart; so as all the Waters that were carried thus far, and were not exhaled and consumed by the Sun, would be suckt up, as in a Spunge, by these Sands of the Torrid Zone. This was the common Grave wherein the Rivers of the first Earth were buried; and this is nothing but what happens still in several parts of the present Earth, especially in Africk, where many Rivers never flow into the Sea, but expire after the same manner as these did, drunk up by the Sun and the Sands. And one arm of Euphratesdies, as I remember, amongst the Sands of Arabia, after the manner of the Rivers of the first Earth.

Thus we have conquered the greatest difficulty, in my apprehension, in this whole Theory, Tofind out the state of the Rivers in the Primitive and Antediluvian Earth, their Origin, course, and period. We have been forced to win our ground by Inches, and have divided the difficulty into parts, that we might encounter them single with more ease.

Fig. 3

The Rivers of that Earth, you see, were in most respects different, and in some contrary to ours; and if you could turn our Rivers backwards, to run from the Sea towards their Fountain-heads, they would more resemble the course of those Ante-diluvian Rivers; for they were greatest at their first setting out, and the Current afterwards, when it was more weak, and the Chanel more shallow, was divided into many branches, and little Rivers; like the Arteries in our Body, that carry the Bloud, they are greatest at first, and the further they go from the Heart, their Source, the less they grow and divide into a multitude of little branches, which lose themselves insensibly in the habit of the flesh, as these little Floods did in the Sands of the Earth.

Because it pleaseth more, and makes a greater impression upon us, to see things represented to the Eye, than to read their description in words, we have ventured to give a model of the Primæval Earth, with its Zones or greater Climates, and the general order and tracts of its Rivers: Not that we believe things to have been in the very same form as here exhibited, but this may serve as a general Ideaof that Earth, which may be wrought into more exactness, according as we are able to enlarge or correct our thoughts hereafter. And as the Zones here represented resemble the Beltsor Fasciæof Jupiter, so we suppose them to proceed from like causes, that Planet being, according to our judgment, in an Antediluvian state, as the Earth we here represent. As for the Polar parts in that our Earth, I can say very little of them, they would make a Scene by themselves, and a very particular one; The Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon, which makes me think the Rains would not fall so much there as in the other parts of the Frigid Zones, where accordingly we have made their chief seat and receptacle. That they flowed from thence in such a like manner as is here represented, we have already Evidenced; And sometimes in their passage swelling into Lakes, and towards the end of their course parting into several streams and branches, they would water those parts of the Earth like a Garden.

We have before compared the branchings of these Rivers towards the end of their course to the ramifications of the Arteries in the Body, when they are far from the Heart near the extream parts; and some, it may be, looking upon this Scheme, would carry the comparison further, and suppose, that as in the Body the Bloud is not lost in the habit of the flesh, but strained thorough it, and taken up again by the little branches of the Veins; so in that Earth the Waters were not lost in those Sands of the Torrid Zone, but strained or percolated thorough them, and received into the Chanels of the other Hemisphere. This indeed would in some measure answer the Notion which several of the Ancient Fathers make use of, that the Rivers of Paradisewere trajected out of the other Hemisphere into this, by Subterraneous passages. But, I confess, I could never see it possible, how such a trajection could be made, nor how they could have any motion, being arrived in another Hemisphere; and therefore I am apt to believe, that doctrine amongst the Ancients arose from an intanglement in their principles; They supposed generally, that Paradisewas in the other Hemisphere, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter; and yet they believed that Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, and Gangeswere the Rivers of Paradise, or came out of it; and these two opinions they could not reconcile, or make out, but by supposing that these four Rivers had their Fountain-heads in the other Hemisphere, and by some wonderful trajection broke out again here. This was the expedient they found out to make their opinions consistent one with another; but this is a method to me altogether unconceivable; and, for my part, I do not love to be led out of my depth, leaning only upon Antiquity. How there could be any such communication, either above ground, or under ground, betwixt the two Hemispheres, does not appear, and therefore we must still suppose the Torrid Zone to have been the Barrier betwixt them, which nothing could pass either way.

We have now examined and determined the state of the Air, and of the Waters in the Primitive Earth, by the light and consequences of reason; and we must not wonder to find them different from the present order of Nature; what things are said of them, or relating to them in holy Writ, do testifie or imply as much; and it will be worth our time to make some reflection upon those passages for our further confirmation. Mosestells us, that the Rainbowwas set in the Clouds after the Deluge; those Heavens then that never had a Rainbow before, were certainly of a constitution very different from ours. And St. Peterdoth formally and expresly tell us, that the Old Heavens, or the Ante-diluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours, and particularly, that they were composed or constituted of Water; which Philosophy of the Apostle's may be easily understood, if we attend to two things, first, that the Heavens he speaks of, were not the Starry Heavens, but the Aerial Heavens, or the Regions of our Air, where the Meteors are; Secondly, that there were no Meteors in those Regions, or in those Heavens, till the Deluge, but watery Meteors, and therefore, he says, they consisted of Water. And this shows the foundation upon which that description is made, how coherently the Apostle argues, and how justly he distinguisheth the first Heavens from the present Heavens, or rather opposeth them one to another; because as those were constituted of Water and watery Meteors only, so the present Heavens, he saith, have treasures of Fire, fiery Exhalations and Meteors, and a disposition to become the Executioners of the Divine wrath and decrees in the final Conflagration of the Earth.

This minds me also of the Celestial Waters, or the Waters above the Firmaments, which Scripture sometimes mentions, and which, methinks, cannot be explained so fitly and emphatically upon any supposition as this of ours. Those who place them above the Starry Heavens, seem neither to understand Astronomy nor Philosophy; and, on the other hand, if nothing be understood by them, but the Clouds and the middle Region of the Air, as it is at present, methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing, as to deserve a particular commemoration by Moses in his six days work; but if we understand them, not as they are now, but as they were then, the only Source of Waters, or the only Source of Waters upon that Earth, (for they had not one drop of Water but what was Celestial,) this gives it a new force and Emphasis: Besides, the whole middle Region having no other sort of Meteors but them, that made it still the greater singularity, and more worthy commemoration. As for the Rivers of Paradise, there is nothing said concerning their Source, or their issue, that is either contrary to this, or that is not agreeable to the general account we have given of the Waters and Rivers of the first Earth. They are not said to rise from any Mountain, but from a great River, or a kind of Lake in Eden, according to the custom of the Rivers of that Earth: And as for their end and issue, Moses doth not say, that they disburthened themselves into this or that Sea, as they usually do in the description of great Rivers, but rather implies, that they spent themselves in compassing and watering certain Countries, which falls in again very easily with our Hypothesis.

But to return to the Rainbow, which we mentioned before, and is not to be past over so slightly. This we say, is a Creature of the modern World, and was not seen nor known before the Flood. Moses(Gen. 9. 12, 13) plainly intimates as much, or rather directly affirms it; for he says, The Bow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge, as a confirmation of the promise or Covenant which God made with Noah, that he would drown the World no more with Water. And how could it be a sign of this, or given as a pledge and confirmation of such a promise, if it was in the Clouds before, and with no regard to this promise? and stood there, it may be, when the World was going to be drowned. This would have been but cold comfort to Noah, to have had such a pledge of the Divine veracity. You'll say, it may be, that it was not a sign or pledge that signified naturally, but voluntarily only, and by Divine institution; I am of opinion, I confess, that it signified naturally, and by connexion with the effect, importing thus much, that the state of Nature was changed from what it was before, and so changed, that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water. But however, let us grant that it signified only by institution; to make it significant in this sence, it must be something new, otherwise it could not signifie any new thing, or be the confirmation of a new promise. If God Almighty had said to Noah, I make a promise to you, and to all living Creatures, that the World shall never be destroyed by Water again, and for confirmation of this, Behold, I set the Sun in the firmament:Would this have been any strengthning of Noah's faith, or any satisfaction to his mind? Why, says Noah, the Sun was in the Firmament when the Deluge came, and was a spectator of that sad Tragedy; why may it not be so again? what sign or assurance is this against a second Deluge? When God gives a sign in the Heavens, or on the Earth, of any Prophecy or Promise to be fulfilled, it must be by something new, or by some change wrought in Nature; whereby God doth testifie to us, that he is able and willing to stand to his promise. God says to Ahaz, Ask a sign of the Lord; Ask it either in the depth, or in the height above:And when Ahazwould ask no sign, God gives one unaskt, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. So when Zacharywas promised a Son, he asketh for a sign, Whereby shall I know this? for I am old, and my Wife well stricken in years;and the sign given him was, that he became dumb, and continued so till the promise was fulfilled.

So in other instances of signs given in external Nature, as the sign given to King Hezekiahfor his recovery, and to Gideon for his victory; to confirm the promise made to Hezekiah, the shadow went back ten degrees in AhazDial: And for Gideon, his Fleece was wet, and all the ground about it dry; and then to change the trial, it was dry, and all the ground about it wet. These were all signs very proper, significant, and satisfactory, having something surprising and extraordinary, yet these were signs by institution only; and to be such they must have something new and strange, as a mark of the hand of God, otherwise they can have no force or significancy. If every thing be as it was before, and the face of Nature, in all its parts, the very same, it cannot signifie any thing new, nor any new intention in the Author of Nature; and consequently, cannot be a sign or pledge, a token or assurance of the accomplishment of any new Covenant or promise made by him.

This, methinks, is plain to common Sense, and to every mans Reason; but because it is a thing of importance, to Evidence that there was no Rainbow before the Flood, and will confirm a considerable part of this Theory, by discovering what the state of the Air was in the Old World, give me leave to argue it a little further, and to remove some prejudices that may keep others from assenting to clear Reason. I know ’tis usually said, that signs, like words, signifie any thing by institution, or may be applied to any thing by the will of the Imposer; as hanging out a white Flag is calling for mercy, a Bush at the door, a sign of Wine to be sold, and such like. But these are instances nothing to our purpose, these are signs of something present, and that signifie only by use and repeated experience; we are speaking of signs of another nature, given in confirmation of a promise, or threatning, or prophecy, and given with design to cure our unbelief, or to excite and beget in us Faith in God, in the Prophet, or in the Promiser; such signs, I say, when they are wrought in external Nature, must be some new Appearance, and must thereby induce us to believe the effect, or more to believe it, than if there had been no sign, but only the affirmation of the Promiser; for otherwise the pretended sign is a meer Cypher and superfluity. But a thing that obtained before, and in the same manner (even when that came to pass, which we are now promised shall not come to pass again) signifies no more, than if there had been no sign at all: it can neither signifie another course in Nature, nor another purpose in God; and therefore is perfectly insignificant. Some instance in the Sacraments, Jewish or Christian, and make them signs in such a sence as the Rainbow is: But those are rather Symbolical representations or commemorations; and some of them, marks of distinction and consecration of our selves to God in such a Religion; They were also new, and very particular when first instituted; but all such instances fall short and do not reach the case before us; we are speaking of signs confirmatory of a promise, when there is something affirmed de futuro, and to give us a further argument of the certainty of it, and of the power and veracity of the Promiser, a sign is given: This we say, must indispensably be something new, otherwise it cannot have the nature, vertue, and influence of a sign.

We have seen how incongruous it would be to admit that the Rainbow appeared before the Deluge, and how dead a sign that would make it, how forced, fruitless and ineffectual, as to the promise it was to confirm; Let us now on the other hand suppose, that it first appeared to the Inhabitants of the Earth after the Deluge, How proper, and how apposite a sign would this be for Providence to pitch upon, to confirm the Promise made to Noahand his posterity, Thatthe World should be no more destroyed by Water? It had a secret connexion with the effect it self, and was so far a natural sign; but however appearing first after the Deluge, and in a watery Cloud, there was, methinks, a great easiness, and propriety of application for such a purpose. And if we suppose, that while God Almighty was declaring his promise to Noah, and the sign of it, there appeared at the same time in the Clouds a fair Rainbow, that marvellous and beautiful Meteor, which Noahhad never seen before; it could not but make a most lively impression upon him, quickning his Faith, and giving him comfort and assurance, that God would be stedfast to his promise.

Nor ought we to wonder, that Interpreters have commonly gone the other way, and supposed that the Rainbow was before the Flood; This, I say, was no wonder in them, for they had no Hypothesisthat could answer to any other interpretation: And in the interpretation of the Texts of Scripture that concern natural things, they commonly bring them down to their own Philosophy and Notions: As we have a great instance in that discourse of St. Peter's, concerning the Deluge, and the Ante-diluvian Heavens, and Earth, which, for want of a Theory, they have been scarce able to make sence of; for they have forcedly applied to the present Earth, or the present form of the Earth, what plainly respected another. A like instance we have in the MosaicalAbysse, or Tehom-Rabba, by whose disruption the Deluge was made; this they knew not well what to make of, and so have generally interpreted it of the Sea, or of our subterraneous Waters; without any propriety, either as to the word, or as to the sence. A third instance is this of the Rainbow, where their Philosophy hath misguided them again; for to give them their due, they do not alledge, nor pretend to alledge, any thing from the Text, that should make them interpret thus, or think the Rainbow was before the Flood; but they pretend to go by certain reasons, as that the Clouds were before the Flood, therefore the Rainbow; and if the Rainbow was not before the Flood, then all things were not made within the six days Creation: To whom these reasons are convictive, they must be led into the same belief with them, but not by any thing in the Text, nor in the true Theory, at least if Ours be so; for by that you see that the Vapours were never condensed into drops, nor into Rain in the temperate and inhabited Climates of that Earth, and consequently there could never be the production or appearance of this Bow in the Clouds. Thus much concerning the Rainbow.

To recollect our selves, and conclude this Chapter, and the whole disquisition concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth; we seem to have so well satisfied the difficulties proposed in the beginning of the Chapter, that they have rather given us an advantage; a better discovery, and such a new prospect of that Earth, as makes it not only habitable, but more fit to be Paradisiacal. The pleasantness of the site of Paradiseis made to consist chiefly in two things, its Waters, and its Trees, (Gen. 2 and Chap. 13. 10. Ezek. 31. 8) and considering the richness of that first soil in the Primitive Earth, it could not but abound in Trees, as it did in Rivers and Rivulets; and be wooded like a Grove, as it was watered like a Garden, in the temperate Climates of it; so as it would not be, methinks, so difficult, to find one Paradisethere, as not to find more than one.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER IV

A digression, concerning the Natural Causes of Longævity. 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.

TO confirm our opinion concerning the reasons of Longævity in the first Inhabitants of the World, it will not be amiss to deduce more at large the Natural Causes of longor short periods of life. And when we speak of long or short periods of life, we do not mean those little difference of ten, twenty or forty Years which we see amongst men now adays, according as they are of stronger or weaker constitutions, and govern themselves better or worse, but those grand and famous differences of several hundreds of Years, which we have examples of in the different Ages of the World, and particularly in those that lived before and since the Flood. Neither do we think it peculiar to this Earth to have such an inequality in the lives of men, but the other Planets, if they be inhabited, have the same property, and the same difference in their different periods; All Planets that are in their Ante-diluvian state, and in their first and regular situation to the Sun, have long-lived Inhabitants; and those that are in an oblique situation, have short-lived; unless there be some counter-causes that hinder this general rule of Nature from taking place.

We are now so used to a short life, and to drop away after threescore or four-score years, that when we compare our lives with those of the Ante-diluvians, we think the wonder lies wholly on their side, whythey lived so long; and so it doth, popularly speaking; but if we speak Philosophically, the wonder lies rather on our side, why we live so little, or so short a time: For seeing our Bodies are such Machines as have a faculty of nourishing themselves, that is, of repairing their lost or decayed parts, so long as they have good nourishment to make use of, why should they not continue in good plight, and always the same? as a flame does, so long as it is supplied with fewel? And that we may the better see on whether side the wonder lies, and from what causes it proceeds, we will propose this Problem to be examined, Why the frame or Machine of an humane Body, or of another Animal, having that construction of parts and those faculties which it hath, lasts so short a time? And though it fall into no disease, nor have any unnatural accident, within the space of eighty years, more or less, fatally and inevitably decays, dies and perisheth?

That the state and difficulty of this question may the better appear, let us consider a man in the prime and vigour of his life, at the age of twenty or twenty four years, of an healthful constitution, and all his Vitals sound; let him be nourisht with good food, use due exercise, and govern himself with moderation in all other things; The Question is, why this Body should not continue in the same plight, and in the same strength, for some Ages? or at least why it should decay so soon, and so fast as we see it does? We do not wonder at things that happen daily, though the causes of them be never so hard to find out; We contract a certain familiarity with common events, and fancy we know as much of them as can be known, though in reality we know nothing of them but matter of fact; which the vulgar knows as well as the Wise or the Learned. We see daily instances of the shortness of mans life, how soon his race is run, and we do not wonder at it, because ’tis common, yet if we examine the composition of the Body, it will be very hard to find any good reasons why the frame of it should decay so soon.

I know ’tis easie to give general and superficial answers and accounts of these things, but they are such, as being strictly examined, give no satisfaction to an inquisitive mind: You would say, it may be, that the Interiour parts and Organs of the Body wear and decay by degrees, so as not performing so well their several offices and functions, for the digestion and distribution of the food and its juices, all the other parts suffer by it, and that draws on insensibly a decay upon the whole frame of the Body. This is all true; but why, and how comes this to pass? from what causes? where is the first failure, and what are the consequences of it? The inward parts do not destroy themselves, and we suppose that there is no want of good food, nor any disease, and we take the Body in its full strength and vigour, why doth it not continue thus, as a Lamp does, if you supply it with Oil? The causes being the same, why doth not the same effect still follow? why should not the flame of life, as well as any other flame, if you give it fewel, continue in its force without languishing or decay?

You will say, it may be, The case is not the same in a simple Body, such as a Lamp or a Fire, and in an Organical Body; which being variously compounded of multiplicity of parts, and all those parts put in connexion and dependance one upon another, if any one fail, it will disorder the whole frame; and therefore it must needs be more difficult for such a body to continue long in the same state, than for a simple Body that hath no variety of parts or operations. I acknowledge such a Body is much more subject to diseases and accidents than a more simple, but barring all diseases and accidents, as we do, it might be of as long a duration as any other, if it was supplied with nourishment adequately to all its parts: As this Lamp we speak of, if it consisted of twenty branches, and each of these branches was to be fed with a different Oil, and these Oils should be all mixt together in some common Cistern, whence they were to be distributed into the several branches, either according to their different degrees of lightness, one rising higher than another; or according to the capacity and figure of the little pipes they were to pass thorough; such a compounded Lamp, made up of such artifices, would indeed be more subject to accidents, and to be out of order, by the obstruction of some of the little pipes, or some unfit qualities in the Oils, but all these casualties and disorders excepted, as they are in our case, if it was supplied with convenient liquors, it would burn as long as any other, though more plain and simple.

To instance yet, for more plainness, in another sort of Machine, suppose a Mill, where the Water may represent the nourishment and humours in our Body, and the frame of Wood and Stone, the solid parts; If we could suppose this Mill to have a power of nourishing it self by the Water it received, and of repairing all the parts that were worn away, whether of the Wood-work or of the Stone, feed it but with a constant stream, and it would subsist and grind for ever. And ’tis the same thing for all other Artificial Machines of this nature, if they had a faculty of nourishing themselves, and repairing their parts. And seeing those natural Machines we are speaking of, the Body of Man, and of other Animals, have and enjoy this faculty, why should they not be able to preserve themselves beyond that short period of time which is now the measure of their life?

Thus much we have said to shew the difficulty proposed and inforce it; We must now consider the true answer and resolution of it; and to that purpose bring into view again those causes which we have assigned, both of the long periods of life before the Flood, and of the short ones since. That there was a perpetual Æquinox and stability of the Heavens before the Flood, we have showed both from History and reason; neither was there then any thing of Clouds, Rains, Winds, Storms or unequal weather, as will appear in the following Chapter; And to this steddiness of Nature and universal calmness of the external World we have imputed those long periods of life which men enjoyed at that time: As on the contrary, when that great change and revolution happened to Nature at the Deluge, and the Heavens and the Earth were cast in another mould, then was brought in, besides many other new Scenes, that shortness and vanity in the life of Man, and a general instability in all sublunary things, but especially in the Animate World.

It is not necessary to show, more than we have done already, how that Primitive state of Nature contributed to long life; neither is it required that it should actively contribute, but only be permissive, and suffer our Bodies to act their parts; for if they be not disturbed, nor any harm done them by external Nature, they are built with art and strength enough to last many hundreds of years. And as we observed before concerning the posture of the Earth, that that which it had at first, being simple and regular, was not so much to be accounted for, as its present posture, which is irregular; so likewise for the life of Man, the difficulty is not why they lived so long in the old World; that was their due and proper course; but why our Bodies being made after the same manner, should endure. so short a time now. This is it therefore which we must now make our business to give an account of, namely, how that vissitude of Seasons, inconstancy of the Air, and unequal course of nature which came in at the Deluge, do shorten Life; and indeed hasten the dissolution of all Bodies, Animate or Inanimate.

In our Bodies we may consider three several qualities or dispositions, according to each whereof they suffer decay; First, their continuity; Secondly, that disposition whereby they are capable of receiving nourishment, which we may call Nutribility; and Thirdly, the Tone or Tonick disposition of the Organs whereby they perform their several functions. In all these three respects they would decay in any state of Nature, but far sooner and faster in the present state than in the Primæval. As for their Continuity, we have noted before that all consistent Bodies must be less durable now, than under that first order of the World, because of the unequal and contrary motions of the Elements, or of the Air and Æther that penetrate and pervade them; and ’tis part of that vanity which all things now are subject to, to be more perishable than in their first Constitution. If we should consider our Bodies only as breathing Statues, consisting of those parts they do, and of that tenderness, the Air which we breath, and wherewith we are continually incompast, changing so often ’twixt moist and dry, hot and cold, a slow and eager motion, these different actions and restless changes would sooner weaken and destroy the union of the parts, than if they were always in a calm and quiet medium.

But it is not the gross and visible Continuity of the parts of our Body that first decays, there are finer Textures that are spoiled insensibly, and draw on the decay of the rest; such are those other two we mentioned, That disposition and temper of the parts whereby they are fit to receive their full nourishment; and especially that construction and texture of the Organs that are preparatory to this Nutrition. The Nutribility of the Body depends upon a certain temperament in the parts, soft and yielding, which makes them open to the Bloud and Juices in their Circulation and passage through them, and mixing intimately, and universally, hold fast and retain many of their Particles; as muddy Earth doth of the Water that runs into it and mixeth with it: And when these Nutritious Particles retained are more than the Body spends, that Body is in its growth; as when they are fewer, ’tis in its decay. And as we compared the flesh and tender parts when they are young and in a growing disposition, to a muddy soil, that opens to the Water, swells and incorporates with it; so when they become hard and dry, they are like a sandy Earth, that suffers the Water to glide through it, without incorporating or retaining many of its parts; and the sooner they come to this temper, the sooner follows their decay: For the same Causes that set limits to our Growth, set also limits to our Life; and he that can resolve that Question, why the time of our Growthis so short, will also be able to resolve the other in a good measure, whythe time of our Lifeis so short. In both cases, that which stops our progress is external Nature, whose course, while it was even and steddy, and the ambient Air mild and balmy, preserved the Body much longer in a fresh and fit temper to receive its full nourishment, and consequently gave larger bounds both to our growth and Life.

But the third thing we mentioned is the most considerable, The decay of the Organick parts; and especially of the Organs preparatory to Nutrition. This is the point chiefly to be examined and explained, and therefore we will endeavour to state it fully and distinctly. There are several functions in the Body of an Animal, and several Organs for the conduct of them; and I am of opinion, that all the Organs of the Body are in the nature of Springs, and that their action is Tonical. The action of the Muscles is apparently so, and so is that of the Heart and the Stomach; and as for those parts that make secretions only, as the Glandulesand Parenchymata, if they be any more than meerly passive, as Strainers, ’tis the Tone of the parts, when distended, that performs the separation: And accordingly in all other active Organs, the action proceeds from a Tone in the parts. And this seems to be easily Evidenced, both as to our Bodies and all other Bodies, for no matter that is not fluid, hath any motion or action in it, but in vertue of some Tone; If matter be fluid, its parts are actually in motion, and consequently may impel or give motion to other Bodies; but if it be solid or consistent, the parts are not separate or separately moved from one another, and therefore cannot impel or give motion to any other, but in vertue of their Tone; they having no other motion themselves. Accordingly we see in Artificial Machines there are but two general sorts, those that move by some fluid or volatile matter, as Water, Wind, Air, or some active Spirit; And those which move by Springs, or by the Tonick disposition of some part that gives motion to the rest: For as for such Machines as act by weights, ’tis not the weight that is the active principle, but the Air or Æther that impels. it ’Tis true, the Body of an Animal is a kind of mixt Machine, and those Organs that are the Primary parts of it, partake of both these principles; for there are Spirits and Liquors that do assist in the motions of the Muscles, of the Heart and of the Stomach; but we have no occasion to consider them at present, but only the Tone of the solid Organs.

This being observed in the first place, Whereinthe force of our Organs consists, we might here immediately subjoyn, how this force is weakened and destroyed by the unequal course of Nature which now obtains, and consequently our Life shortened; for the whole state and Oeconomy of the Body depends upon the force and action of these Organs. But to understand the business more distinctly, it will be worth our time to examine, upon which of the Organs of the Body Life depends more immediately, and the prolongation of it; that so reducing our Inquiries into a narrower compass, we may manage them with more ease and more certainty.

In the Body of Man there are several Compages, or setts of parts, some whereof need not be considered in this question; There is that Systeme that serves for sence and local-motion, which is commonly called the ANIMAL Compages; and that which serves for generation, which is called the GENITAL. These have no influence upon long Life, being parts nourished, not nourishing, and that are fed from others as Rivers from their Fountain: Wherefore having laid these aside, there remain two Compages more, the NATURAL and VITAL, which consist of the Heart and Stomach, with their appendages. These are the Sources of Life, and all that is absolutely necessary to the constitution of a Living Creature; what parts we find more, few or many, of one sort or other, according to the several kinds of Creatures, is accidental to our purpose; The form of an Animal, as we are to consider it here, lies in this little compass, and what is superadded is for some new purposes, besides that of meer Life, as for Sense, Motion, Generation, and such like. As in a Watch, besides the Movement, which is made to tell you the hour of the day, which constitutes a Watch, you may have a fancy to have an Alarum added, or a Minute-motion, or that it should tell you the day of the month; and this sometimes will require a new Spring, sometimes only new Wheels; however if you would examine the Nature of a Watch, and upon what its motion, or, if I may so say, its Life depends, you must lay aside those secondary Movements, and observe the main Spring, and the Wheels that immediately depend upon that, for all the rest is accidental. So for the Life of an Animal, which is a piece of Nature's Clockwork, if we would examine upon what the duration of it depends, we must lay aside those additional parts or Systems of parts, which are for other purposes, and consider only the first principles and fountains of Life, and the causes of their natural and necessary decay.

Having thus reduced our Inquiries to these two Organs, The Stomach and the Heart, as the two Master-Springs in the Mechanism of an Animal, upon which all the rest depend, let us now see what their action is, and how it will be more or less durable and constant, according to the different states of external Nature. We determined before, that the force and action of all Organs in the Body was Tonical, and of none more remarkable than of these two, the Heart and Stomach; for though it be not clearly determined what the particular structure of these Organs, or of their Fibres is, that makes them Tonical, yet ’tis manifest by their actions that they are so. In the Stomach, besides a peculiar ferment that opens and dissolves the parts of the Meat, and melts them into a fluor or pulp, the coats of it, or Fibres whereof they consist, have a motion proper to them, proceeding from their Tone, whereby they close the Stomach, and compress the Meat when it is received, and when turned into Chyle, press it forwards, and squeese it into the Intestines; And the Intestines also partaking of the same motion, push and work it still forwards into those little Veins that convey it towards the Heart. The Heart hath the same general motions with the Stomach, of opening and shutting, and hath also a peculiar ferment which rarifies the Bloud that enters into it; and that bloud by the Spring of the Heart, and the particular Texture of its Fibres, is thrown out again to make its Circulation through the Body. This is, in short, the action of both these Organs; and indeed the mystery of the Body of an Animal, and of its operations and Oeconomy, consists chiefly in Springs and Ferments; The one for the solid parts, the other in the fluid.

But to apply this Fabrick of the Organick parts to our purpose, we may observe and conclude, that whatsoever weakens the Tone or Spring of these two Organs, which are the Bases of all Vitality, weaken the principle of Life, and shorten the Natural duration of it; And if of two Orders or Courses of Nature, the one be favourable and easie to these Tonick principles in the Body, and the other uneasie and prejudicial, that course of Nature will be attended with long periods of Life, and this with short. And we have shewn, that in the Primitive Earth the course of Nature was even, steddy and unchangeable, without either different qualities of the Air, or unequal Seasons of the Year, which must needs be more easie to these principles we speak of, and permit them to continue longer in their strength and vigour, than they can possibly do under all those changes of the Air, of the Atmosphere, and of the Heavens, which we now suffer yearly, monthly, and daily. And though Sacred History had not acquainted us with the Longævity of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs, nor profane History with those of the Golden Age, I should have concluded, from the Theory alone, and the contemplation of that state of Nature, that the forms of all things were much more permanent in that World than in ours, and that the lives of Men and all other Animals had longer periods.

I confess, I am of opinion, that ’tis this that makes, not only these living Springs or Tonick Organs of the Body, but all Artificial Springs also, though made of the hardest Metal, decay so fast. The different pressure of the Atmosphere, sometimes heavier, sometimes lighter, more rare or more dense, moist or dry, and agitated with different degrees of motion, and in different manners; this must needs operate upon that nicer contexture of Bodies, which makes them Tonical or Elastick; altering the figure or minuteness of the pores, and the strength and order of the Fibres upon which that propriety depends: bending and unbending, closing and opening the parts. There is a subtle and Æthereal Element that traverseth the pores of all Bodies, and when ’tis straitened and pent up there, or stopt in its usual course and passage, its motion is more quick and eager, as a Current of Water, when ’tis obstructed or runs through a narrower Chanel; and that strife and those attempts which these little active Particles make to get free, and follow the same tracts they did before, do still press upon the parts of the Body that are changed, to redress and reduce them to their first and Natural posture, and in this consists the force of a Spring. Accordingly we may observe, that there is no Body that is Tonical or Elastick, if it be left to it self, and to that posture it would take naturally; for then all the parts are at ease, and the subtle matter moves freely and uninterruptedly within its pores; but if by distention, or by compression, or by flexion, or any other way, the situation of the parts and pores be so altered, that the Air sometimes, but for the most part that subtiler Element, is uneasie and comprest too much, if causeth that renitency or tendency to restitution, which we call the Tone or Spring of a Body. Now as this disposition of Bodies doth far more easily perish than their Continuity, so I think there is nothing that contributes more to its perishing (whether in Natural or Artificial Springs) than the unequal action and different qualities of the Æther, Air, and Atmosphere.

It will be objected to us, it may be, that in the beginning of the Chapter we instanced in Artificial things, that would continue for ever, if they had but the power of nourishing themselves, as Lamps, Mills, and such like; why then may not Natural Machines that have that power, last for ever? The case is not the same as to the Bodies of Animals, and the things there instanced in, for those were springless Machines, that act only by some external cause, and not in vertue of any Tone or interiour temper of the parts, as our Bodies do; and when that Tone or temper is destroyed, no nourishment can repair it. There is something, I say, irreparable in the Tonical disposition of matter, which, when lost, cannot be restored by Nutrition; Nutrition may answer to a bare consumption of parts, but where the parts are to be preserved in such a temperament, or in such a degree of humidity and driness, warmth, rarity or density, to make them capable of that nourishment, as well as of their other operations, as Organs; (which is the case of our Bodies) there the Heavens, the Air, and external Causes will change the qualities of the matter in spite of all Nutrition; and the qualities of the matter being changed (in a course of Nature, where the Cause cannot be taken away) that is a fault incorrigible, and irreparable by the nourishment that follows, being hindered of its effect by the indisposition or incapacity of the Recipient. And as they say, a fault in the first concoction cannot be corrected in the second; so neither can a fault in the Prerequisites to all the concoctions be corrected by any of them.

I know the Ancients made the decay and term of Life to depend rather upon the humours of the Body, than the solid parts, and supposed an Humidum radicaleand a Calidum innatum, as they call them, a Radical moisture and Congenit heat to be in every Body from its birth and first formation; and as these decayed, life decayed. But who's wiser for this account, what doth this instruct us in? We know there is heat and moisture in the Body, and you may call the one Radical, and the other Innateif you please; this is but a sort of Cant, for we know no more of the real Physical Causes of that effect we enquired into, than we did before. What makes this heat and moisture fail, if the nourishment be good, and all the Organs in their due strength and temper? The first and original failure is not in the fluid, but in the solid parts, which if they continued the same, the humours would do so too. Besides, what befel this Radical moisture and heat at the Deluge, that it should decay so fast afterwards, and last so long before? There is a certain temper, no doubt, of the juices and humours of the Body, which is more fit than any other to conserve the parts from driness and decay; but the cause of that driness and decay, or other inhability in the solid parts, whence is that, if not from external Nature? ’Tis thither we must come at length in our search of the reasons of the Natural decay of our Bodies, we follow the fate and Laws of that: and, I think, by those Causes, and in that order, that we have already described and explained.

To conclude this Discourse, we may collect from it what judgment is to be made of those Projectors of Immortality, or undertakes to make Men live to the Age of Methusalah, if they will use their methods and medicines; There is but one method for this, To put the Sun into his old course, or the Earth into its first posture; there is no other secret to prolong life; Our Bodies will sympathize with the general course of Nature, nothing can guard us from it, no Elixir, no Specifick, no Philosophers-stone. But there are Enthusiasts in Philosophy, as well as in Religion; men that go by no principles, but their own conceit and fancy, and by a Light within, which shines very uncertainly, and, for the most part, leads them out of the way of truth. And so much for this disquisition, concerning the Causes of Longævity, or of the long and short periods of Life in the different periods of the World.

That the Age of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs is to be computed bySolar or common Years, not byLunar or Months.

Having made this discourse of the unequal periods of life, only in reference to the Ante-diluvians and their famed Longævity, lest we should seem to have proceeded upon an ill-grounded and mistaken supposition, we are bound to take notice of, and confute, that opinion which makes the Years of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs to have been Lunar, not Solar, and so would bear us in hand, that they lived only so many Months, as Scripture saith they lived Years. Seeing there is nothing could drive men to this bold interpretation, but the incredibility of the thing, as they fansied; They having no Notions or Hypothesiswhereby it could appear intelligible or possible to them; and seeing we have taken away that stumbling-stone, and showed it not only possible but necessary, according to the constitution of that World, that the periods of Life should be far longer than in this; by removing the ground or occasion of their misinterpretation, we hope we have undeceived them, and let them see that there is no need of that subterfuge, either to prevent an incongruity, or save the credit of the Sacred Historian.

But as this opinion is inconsistent with Nature truly understood, so is it also with common History; for besides what I have already mentioned in the first Chapter of this Book, Josephustells us, that the Historians of all Nations, both Greeksand Barbarians, give the same account of the first Inhabitants of the Earth; Manetho, who writ the story of theÆgyptians, Berosus, who writ theChaldæan History, and those Authors that have given us an account of thePhœnician Antiquities; besidesMolus andHestiæus, andHieronymus theÆgyptian; and amongst the GreeksHesiodus, Hecateus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, Ephorus andNicolaus. We have the Suffrages of all these, and their common consent, that in the first Ages of the World Men lived a thousand Years. Now we cannot well suppose, that all these Historians meant LunarYears, or that they all conspired together to make and propagate a Fable.

Lastly, as Nature and Profane History do disown and confute this opinion, so much more doth Sacred History; not indeed in professed terms, for Mosesdoth not say that he useth SolarYears, but by several marks and observations, or collateral Arguments, it may be clearly collected, that he doth not use Lunar. As first, because He distinguisheth Monthsand Yearsin the History of the Deluge, and of the life of Noah; for Gen. 7. 11 he saith in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, &c. It cannot be imagined that in the same verse and sentence these two terms of Yearand Monthshould be so confounded as to signifie the same thing; and therefore Noah's Years were not the same with Months, nor consequently those of the other Patriarchs, for we have no reason to make any difference. Besides, what ground was there, or how was it proper or pertinent to reckon, as Mosesdoes there, first, second, third Month, as so many going to a Year, if every one of them was a Year? And seeing the Deluge begun in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, and in the second Month, and ended in the six hundredth and first Year (Chap. 8. 13) the first or second Month, all that was betwixt these two terms, or all the duration of the Deluge, made but one year in Noah's life, or it may be not so much; and we know Moses reckons a great many months in the duration of the Deluge; so as this is a demonstration that Noah's years are not to be understood of Lunar. And to imagine that his years are to be understood one way, and those of his fellow-Patriarchs another, would be an inaccountable fiction. This Argument therefore extends to all the Ante-diluvians; And Noah's life will take in the Post-diluvians too, for you see part of it runs amongst them, and ties together the two Worlds; so that if we exclude Lunaryears from his life, we exclude them from all, those of his Fathers, and those of his Children.

Secondly, If Lunaryears were understood in the Ages of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs, the interval betwixt the Creation and the Deluge would be too short, and in many respects incongruous. There would be but 1656 months from the beginning of the World to the Flood; which converted into common years, make but 127 years, and five months, for that interval. This perverts all Chronology, and besides, makes the number of people so small and inconsiderable at the time of the Deluge, that destroying of the World was not so much as destroying of a Country Town would be now: For from one couple you cannot well imagine there could arise above five hundred persons in so short a time; but if there was a thousand, ’tis not so many as we have sometimes in a good Country Village. And were the Flood-gates of Heaven opened, and the great Abysse broken up to destroy such an handful of people? and the Waters raised fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains throughout the face of the Earth, to drown a Parish or two? is not this more incredible than our Age of the Patriarchs? Besides, this short interval doth not leave room for Ten generations, which we find from Adamto the Flood, nor allows the Patriarchs age enough at the time when they are said to have got Children. One hundred twenty seven years for Ten generations is very strait; and of these you must take off forty six years for one Generation only, or for Noah, for he lived six hundred years before the Flood, and if they were Lunar, they would come however to forty six of our years; so that for the other nine Generations you would have but eighty one years, that is, nine years a-piece; at which Age they must all be supposed to have begun to get Children; which you cannot but think a very absurd supposition. Thus it would be, if you divide the whole time equally amongst the nine Generations, but if you consider some single instances, as they are set down by Moses, ’tis still worse; for Mahaleeland his Grandchild Enochare said to have got Children at sixty five years of Age, which if you suppose months, they were but five years old at that time; now I appeal to any one, Whether it is more incredible that men should live to the age of nine hundred years, or that they should beget Children at the age of five years.

You will say, it may be, ’tis true these inconveniences follow, if our HebrewCopies of the Old Testament be Authentick; but if the GreekTranslation by the Septuagintbe of better Authority, as some would have it to be, that gives a little relief in this case; for the Septuagintmake the distance from the Creation to the Flood six hundred years more than the HebrewText does, and so give us a little more room for our Ten Generations: And not only so, but they have so conveniently disposed those additional years, as to salve the other inconvenience too, of the Patriarchs having Children so young: for what Patriarchs are found to have got Children sooner than the rest, and so soon, that upon a computation by Lunaryears, they would be but meer Children themselves at that time, to these, more years are added and placed opportunely, before the time of their getting Children; so as one can scarce forbear to think that it was done on purpose to cure that inconvenience, and to favour and protect the computation by Lunar years. The thing looks so like an artifice, and as done to serve a turn, that one cannot but have a less opinion of that Chronology for it.

But not to enter upon that dispute at present, methinks they have not wrought the cure effectually enough; for with these six hundred Lunaryears added, the summ will be only one hundred seventy three common years and odd months; and from these deducting, as we did before, for Noah, forty six years, and for Adam, or the first Generation, about eighteen, (for he was two hundred and thirty years old, according to the Septuagint, when he begot Seth) there will remain but one hundred and nine years for eight Generations; which will be thirteen years a-piece and odd months; a low age to get Children in, and to hold for eight Generations together. Neither is the other inconvenience we mentioned, well cured by the Septuagintaccount, namely, the small number of people that would be in the World at the Deluge; for the Septuagintaccount, if understood of Lunar years, adds but forty six common years to the Hebrew account, and to the age of the World at the Deluge, in which time there could be but a very small accession to the number of Mankind. So as both these incongruities continue, though not in the same degree, and stand good in either account, if it be understood of Lunaryears.

Thirdly, ’tis manifest from other Texts of Scripture, and from other considerations, that our first Fathers lived very long, and considerably longer than men have done since; whereas if their years be interpreted Lunar, there is not one of them that lived to the age that men do now; Methusalahhimself did not reach threescore and fifteen years, upon that interpretation: Which doth depress them not only below those that lived next to the Flood, but below all following Generations to this day; and those first Ages of the World, which were always celebrated for strength and vivacity, are made as weak and feeble as the last dregs of Nature. We may observe, that after the Flood for some time, till the pristine Crasisof the Body was broken by the new course of Nature, they lived five, four, three, two hundred years, and the Life of Men shortned by degrees; but before the Flood, when the lived longer, there was no such decrease or gradual declension in their lives. For Noah, who was the last, lived longer than Adam; and Methusalahwho was last but two, lived the longest of all: So that it was not simply, their distance from the beginning of the World that made them live a shorter time, but some change which happened in Nature after such a period of time; namely, at the Deluge, when the declension begun. Let's set down the Table of both states.

A Table of the Ages of the Ante-diluvian Fathers.

A Table of the Ages of the Post-diluvian Fathers, fromShem toJoseph

From these Tables we see that Mens Lives were much longer before the Flood, and next after it, than they are now; which also is confirmed undiniably by Jacob's complaint of the shortness of his life, in comparison of his Fore-fathers, when he had lived one hundred and thirty years, Gen. 47. 9. The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my Fathers. There was then, ’tis certain, long-lived men in the World before Jacob's time; when were they, before the Flood or after? We say both, according as the Tables shew it: But if you count by Lunaryears, there never were any, either before or after, and Jacob's complaint was unjust and false; for he was the oldest Man in the World himself, or at least there was none of his Fore-fathers that lived so long as he.

The Patrons of this opinion must needs find themselves at a loss, how or where to break off the account of Lunaryears in Sacred History, if they once admit it. If they say, that way of counting must only be extended to the Flood, then they make the Post-diluvian Fathers longer lived than the Ante-diluvian; did the Flood bring in Longævity? how could that be the cause of such an effect? Besides, if they allow the Post-diluvians to have lived six hundred (common) years, that being clearly beyond the standard of our lives, I should never stick at two or three hundred years more for the first Ages of the World. If they extend their Lunaraccount to the Post-diluvians too, they will still be intangled in worse absurdities; for they must make their lives miserably short, and their Age of getting Children altogether incongruous and impossible. Nahor, for example, when he was but two years and three months old must have begot Terah, Abraham's Father: And all the rest betwixt him and Shem must have had Children before they were three years old: A pretty race of Pigmies. Then their lives were proportionably short, for this Nahorlived but eleven years and six months at this rate; and his Grandchild Abraham, who is said to have died in a good old age, and full of years, (Gen. 25. 8) was not fourteen years old. What a ridiculous account this gives of Scripture-Chronology and Genealogies? But you'll say, it may be, these Lunaryears are not to be carried so far as Abrahamneither; tell us then where you'll stop, and why you stop in such a place rather than another. If you once take in Lunaryears, what ground is there in the Text, or in the History, that you should change your way of computing, at such a time, or in such a place? All our Ancient Chronology is founded upon the Books of Moses, where the terms and periods of time are exprest by years, and often by Genealogies, and the Lives of Men; now if these years are sometimes to be interpreted Lunar, and sometimes Solar, without any distinction made in the Text, what light or certain rule have we to go by? let these Authors name to us the parts and places where, and only where, the Lunaryears are to be understood, and I dare undertake to show, that their method is not only arbitrary, but absurd and incoherent.

To conclude this Discourse, we cannot but repeat what we have partly observed before, How necessary it is to understand Nature, if we would rightly understand those things in holy Writ that relate to the Natural World. For without this knowledge, as we are apt to think some things consistent and credible that are really impossible in Nature; so on the other hand, we are apt to look upon other things as incredible and impossible that are really founded in Nature. And seeing every one is willing so to expound Scripture, as it may be to them good sence, and consistent with their Notions in other things, they are forced many times to go against the easie and natural importance of the words, and to invent other interpretations more compliant with their principles, and, as they think, with the nature of things. We have, I say, a great instance of this before us in the Scripture-History of the long lives of the Ante-diluvians, where without any ground or shadow of ground in the Narration, only to comply with a mistaken Philosophy, and their ignorance of the Primitive World, many men would beat down the Scripture account of years into months, and sink the lives of those first Fathers below the rate of the worst of Ages. Whereby that great Monument, which Providence hath left us of the first World, and of its difference from the Second, would not only be defaced, but wholly demolisht. And all this sprung only from the seeming incredibility of the thing; for they cannot show in any part of Scripture, New or Old, that these Lunaryears are made use of, or that any computation, literal or Prophetical, proceeds upon them: Nor that there is any thing in the Text or Context of that place, that argues or intimates any such account. We have endeavoured, upon this occasion, effectually to prevent this misconstruction of Sacred History, for the future; both by showing the incongruities that follow upon it, and also that there is no necessity from Nature of any such shift or evasion, as that is: But rather on the contrary, that we have just and necessary reasons to conclude, That as the Forms of all things would be far more permanent and lasting in that Primitive state of the Heavens and the Earth; so particularly the Lives of Men, and of other Animals.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER III

The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian. The three Characters of Paradiseand the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth. A particular Explication of each Character.

WE have hitherto only perplext the Argument and our selves, by showing how inexplicable the state of Paradiseis according to the present order of things, and the present condition of the Earth. We must now therefore bring into view that Original and Ante-diluvian Earth where we pretend its seat was, and show it capable of all those priviledges which we have denyed to the present; in vertue of which priviledges, and of the order of Nature establisht there, that Primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal, as in the Golden Age; and some Region of it peculiarly so, according to the Ideaof the Christian Paradise. And this, I think, is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect, or that Providence hath allowed us in this Argument.

The Primigenial Earth, which in the first Book (Chap. 5) we raised from a Chaos, and set up in an habitable form, we must now survey again with more care, to observe its principal differences from the present Earth, and what influence they will have upon the question in hand. These differences, as we have said before, were chiefly three; The form of it, which was smooth, even, and regular. The posture and situation of it to the Sun, which was direct, and not, as it is at present, inclined and oblique; And the Figure of it, which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now. From these three differences flowed a great many more, inferiour and subordinate; and which had a considerable influence upon the moral World at that time, as well as the natural. But we will only observe here their more immediate effects, and that in reference to those general Characters or properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise, which we have instanced in, and whereof we are bound to give an account by our Hypothesis.

And in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mentioned, was, that of the right posture and situation of the Earth to the Sun; for from this immediately followed a perpetual Æquinox all the Earth over, or, if you will, a perpetual Spring: And that was the great thing we found awanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal, or capable of being so. Wherefore this being now found and establisht in the Primitive Earth, the other two properties, of Longævity and of Spontaneous and Vital fertility, will be of more easie explication. In the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first Earth.

The truth is, one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the Earth had then, for that was most simple and natural; as of the irregular situation it hath now; standing oblique and inclined to the Sun or the Ecliptick: Whereby the course of the year is become unequal, and we are cast into a great diversity of Seasons. But however, stating the first aright with its circumstances, we shall have a better prospect upon the second, and see from what causes, and in what manner, it came to pass. Let us therefore suppose the Earth, with the rest of its fellow-Planets, to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens; and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular, having the same Center of its magnitude and gravity, it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick, both its Poles being equally inclined to the Sun. And this posture I call a right situation, as opposed to oblique or inclined. Now this is a thing that needs no proof besides its own evidence; for ’tis the immediate result and common effect of gravity or libration, that a Body freely left to it self in a fluid medium, should settle in such a posture as best answers to its gravitation; and this first Earth whereof we speak, being uniform and every way equally ballanced, there was no reason why it should incline at one end, more than at the other, towards the Sun. As if you should suppose a Ship to stand North and South under the Æquator, if it was equally built and equally ballasted, it would not incline to one Pole or other, but keep its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Earth; but if the ballast lay more at one end, it would dip towards that Pole, and rise proportionably higher towards the other. So those great Ships that sail about the Sun once a year, or once in so many years, whilst they are uniformly built and equally poised, they keep steddy and even with the Axis of their Orbit; but if they lose that equality, and the Center of their gravity change, the heavier end will incline more towards the common Center of their motion, and the other end will recede from it: So particularly the Earth, which makes one in that aery Fleet, when it scaped so narrowly from being shipwrackt in the great Deluge, was however so broken and disordered, that it lost its equal poise, and thereupon the Center of its gravity changing, one Pole became more inclined towards the Sun, and the other more removed from it, and so its right and parallel situation which it had before to the Axis of the Ecliptick, was changed into an oblique; in which skew posture it hath stood ever since, and is likely so to do for some Ages to come. I instance in this, as the most obvious cause of the change of the situation of the Earth, tho’ it may be, upon this, followed a change in its Magnetism: and that might also contribute to the same effect.

However, This change and obliquity of the Earth's posture had a long train of consequences depending upon it; whereof that was the most immediate, that it altered the form of the year, and brought in that inequality of Seasons which hath since obtain'd: As, on the contrary, while the Earth was in its first and natural posture, in a more easie and regular disposition to the Sun, That had also another respective train of consequences, whereof one of the first, and that which we are most concerned in at present, was, that it made a perpetual Æquinox or Spring to all the World, all the parts of the year had one and the same tenour, face and temper; there was no Winter or Summer, Seed-time or Harvest, but a continual temperature of the Air and Verdure of the Earth. And this fully answers the first and fundamental character of the Golden Age and of Paradise; And what Antiquity, whether Heathen or Christian, hath spoken concerning that perpetual serenity and constant Spring that reigned there, which in the one was accounted fabulous, and in the other hyperbolical, we see to have been really and Philosophically true. Nor is there any wonder in the thing, the wonder is rather on our side, that the Earth should stand and continue in that forced posture wherein it is now, spinning yearly about an Axis that doth not belong to the Orbit of its motion; this, I say, is more strange than that it once stood in a posture that was streight and regular; As we more justly admire the Tower at Pisa, that stands crooked, than twenty other streight Towers that are much higher.

Having got this foundation to stand upon, the rest of our work will go on more easily; and the two other Characters which we mentioned, will not be of very difficult explication. The spontaneous fertility of the Earth, and its production of Animals at that time, we have in some measure explained before; supposing it to proceed partly from the richness of the Primigenial soil, and partly from this constant Spring and benignity of the Heavens, which we have now establisht; These were always ready to excite Nature, and put her upon action, and never to interrupt her in any of her motions or attempts. We have showed in the Fifth Chapter of the First Book, how this Primigenial soil was made, and of what ingredients; which were such as compose the richest and fattest soil, being a light Earth mixt with unctuous juices, and then afterwards refreshed and diluted with the dews of Heaven all the year long, and cherisht with a continual warmth from the Sun. What more hopeful beginning of a World than this? You will grant, I believe, that whatsoever degree or whatsoever kind of fruitfulness could be expected from a Soil and a Sun, might be reasonably expected there. We see great Woods and Forests of Trees rise spontaneously, and that since the Flood (for who can imagine that the ancient Forests, whereof some were so vastly great, were planted by the hand of man?) why should we not then believe that Fruit-trees and Corn rose as spontaneously in that first Earth? That which makes Husbandry and Humane Arts so necessary now for the Fruits and productions of the Earth, is partly indeed the decay of the Soil, but chiefly the diversity of Seasons, whereby they perish, if care be not taken of them; but when there was neither Heat nor Cold, Winter nor Summer, every Season was a Seed-time to Nature, and ever Season an Harvest.

This, it may be, you will allow as to the Fruits of the Earth, but that the same Earth should produce Animals also will not be thought so intelligible. Since it hath been discovered, that the first materials of all Animals are Eggs, as Seeds are of Plants, it doth not seem so hard to conceive that these Eggs might be in the first Earth, as well as those Seeds; for there is a great analogy and similitude betwixt them; Especially if you compare these Seeds first with the Eggs of In-sects or Fishes, and then with the Eggs of Viviparous Animals. And as for those juices which the Eggs of Viviparous Animals imbibe thorough their coats from the womb, they might as well imbibe them, or something analogous to them, from a conveniently tempered Earth, as Plant-Eggs do; And these things being admitted, the progress is much-what the same in Seeds as Eggs, and in one sort of Eggs as in another.

’Tis true, Animal-Eggs do not seem to be fruitful of themselves, without the influence of the Male; and this is not necessary in Plant-Eggs or Vegetable Seeds. But neither doth it seem necessary in all Animal-Eggs, if there be any Animals sponte orta, as they call them, or bred without copulation. And, as we observed before, according to the best knowledge that we have of this Male influence, it is reasonable to believe, that it may be supplied by the Heavens or Æther. The Ancients, both the Stoicksand Aristotle, have supposed that there was something of an Æthereal Element in the Male-geniture, from whence the vertue of it chiefly proceeded; and if so, why may we not suppose, at that time, some general impression or irradiation of that purer Element to fructifie the new-made Earth? Mosessaith there was an incubation of the Spirit of God upon the mass, and without all doubt that was either to form or fructifie it, and by the mediation of this active principle; but the Ancients speak more plainly with express mention of this Æther, and of the impregnation of the Earth by it, as betwixt Male and Female. As in the place before cited;

Tum Pater omnipotens fœcundis imbribus Æther
Conjugis in gremium lætæ descendit; & omnes
Magnus alit magno commixtus corpore, fœtus.

Which notion, I remember, St. Austinsaith, Virgildid not take from the fictions of the Poets, but out of the Books of the Philosophers. Some of the gravest Authors amongst the Romanshave reported that this vertue hath been convey'd into the wombs of some Animals by the Winds or the Zephyri; and as I easily believe that the first fresh Air was more impregnated with this Æthereal principle than ours is, so I see no reason but those balmy dews that fell every night in the Primitive Earth, might be the Vehicle of it as well as the Male-geniture is now; and from them the teeming Earth and those vital Seeds which it contained, were actuated, and received their first fruitfulness.

Now this Principle, howsoever conveyed to those rudiments of life which we call Eggs, is that which gives the first stroke towards Animation; And this seems to be by exciting a ferment in those little masses whereby the parts are loosened, and disposed for that formation which is to follow afterwards. And I see nothing that hinders but that we may reasonably suppose that these Animal productions might proceed thus far in the Primigenial Earth; And as to their progress and the formation of the Body, by what Agents or principles soever that great work is carried on in the womb of the Female, it might by the same be carried on there. Neither would there be any danger of miscarrying by excess of Heat or Cold, for the Air was always of an equal temper and moderate warmth; And all other impediments were removed, and all principles ready, whether active or passive; so as we may justly conclude, that as Evewas the Mother of all living as to Mankind, so was the Earth the Great Mother of all living Creatures besides.

The third Character to be explained, and the most extraordinary in appearance, is that of LONGÆVITY. This sprung from the same root, in my opinion, with the other; though the connexion, it may be, is not so visible. We showed in the foregoing Chapter, that no advantage of Diet, or of strong Constitutions, could have carried their lives, before the Flood, to that wonderful length, if they had been exposed to the same changes of Air and of Seasons that our Bodies are: But taking a perpetual Æquinox, and fixing the Heavens, you fix the life of Man too; which was not then in such a rapid flux as it is now, but seemed to stand still, as the Sun did once, without declension. There is no question but every thing upon Earth, and especially the Animate World, would be much more permanent, if the general course of Nature was more steddy and uniform; A stability in the Heavens makes a stability in all things below; and that change and contrariety of qualities that we have in these Regions, is the fountain of corruption, and suffers nothing to be long in quiet: Either by intestine motions and fermentations excited within, or by outward impressions, Bodies are no sooner well constistituted, but they are tending again to dissolution. The Ætherin their little pores and chinks is unequally agitated, and differently moved at different times, and so is the Air in their greater, and the Vapours and Atmosphere round about them: All these shake and unsettle both the texture and continuity of Bodies. Whereas in a fixt state of Nature, where these principles have always the same constant and uniform motion, when they are once suited to the forms and compositions of Bodies, they give them no further disturbance; they enjoy a long and lasting peace without any commotions or violence, within or without.

We find our selves, sensible changes in our Bodies upon the turn of the Year, and the change of Seasons; new fermentations in the Bloud and resolutions of the Humours; which if they do not amount to diseases, at least they disturb Nature, and have a bad effect not only upon the fluid parts, but also upon the more solid; upon the Springs and Fibres in the Organs of the Body; to weaken them and unfit them by degrees for their respective functions. For though the change is not sensible immediately in these parts, yet after many repeated impressions every year, by unequal heat and cold, driness and moisture, contracting and relaxing the Fibres, their tone at length is in a great measure destroyed, or brought to a manifest debility; and the great Springs failing, the lesser that depend upon them, fail in proportion, and all the symptoms of decay and old age follow. We see by daily experience, that Bodies are kept better in the same medium, as we call it, than if they often change their medium, as sometimes in Air, sometimes in Water, moistened and dried, heated and cooled; these different states weaken the contexture of the parts: But our Bodies, in the present state of Nature, are put into an hundred different mediumsin the course of a Year; sometimes we are steept in Water, or in a misty foggy Air for several days together, sometimes we are almost frozen with cold, then fainting with heat at another time of the Year; and the Winds are of a different nature, and the Air of a different weight and pressure, according to the Weather and the Seasons: These things would wear our Bodies, though they were built of Oak, and that in a very short time in comparison of what they would last, if they were always incompast with one and the same medium, under one and the same temper, as it was in the Primitive Earth.

The Ancients seem to have been sensible of this, and of the true causes of those long periods of life; for wheresoever they assigned a great longævity, as they did not only to their Golden Age, but also to their particular and topical Paradises, they also assigned there a constant serenity and equality of the Heavens, and sometimes expresly a constant Æquinox; as might be made appear from their Authors. And some of our Christian Authors have gone farther, and connected these two together, as Cause and Effect; for they say that the Longævity of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs proceeded from a favourable Aspectand influence of the Heavens at that time; which Aspect of the Heavens being rightly interpreted, is the same thing that we call the Position of the Heavens, or the right situation of the Sun and the Earth, from whence came a perpetual Æquinox. And if we consider the present Earth, I know no place where they live longer than in that little Island of the Bermudas, where, according to the proportion of time they hold out there, after they are arrived from other parts, one may reasonably suppose, that the Natives would live two hundred Years. And there's nothing appears in that Island that should give long life above other places, but the extraordinary steddiness of the Weather, and of the temper of the Air throughout the whole Year, so as there is scarce any considerable difference of Seasons.

But because it would take up too much time to show in this place the full and just reasons why, and how, these long periods of life depend upon the stability of the Heavens: and how on the contrary, from their inconstancy and mutability these periods are shortened, as in the present order of Nature; we will set apart the next Chapter to treat upon that subject; yet by way of digression only, so as those that have a mind may pass to the following, where the thred of this discourse is continued. In the mean time, you see, we have prepared an Earth forParadise, and given a fair and intelligible account of those three general Characters, which, according to the rules of method, must be determined before any further progress can be made in this Argument. For in the doctrine of Paradisethere are two things to be considered, the state of it, and the place of it; And as it is first in order of Nature, so it is much more material, to find out the state of it, than the Region where it stood. We need not follow the Windings of Rivers, and the interpretation of hard names, to discover this, we take more faithful Guides, THE unanimous reports of Antiquity, Sacred and Profane, supported by a regular Theory. Upon these grounds we go, and have thus far proceeded on our way; which we hope will grow more easie and pleasant, the nearer we come to our journeys end.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND 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.

THE Scheme of this World passeth away, saith an holy Author; The mode and form, both of the Natural and Civil World, changeth continually more or less, but most remarkably at certain Periods, when all Nature puts on another face; as it will do at the Conflagration, and hath done already from the time of the Deluge. We may imagine how different a prospect the first World would make from what we see now in the present state of things, if we consider only those generals by which we have described it in the foregoing Chapter, and what their influence would be upon mankind and the rest of Nature. For every new state of Nature doth introduce a new Civil Order, and a new face and Oeconomy of Humane affairs: And I am apt to think that some two Planets, that are under the same state or Period, do not so much differ from one another, as the same Planet doth from it self, in different periods of its duration. We do not seem to inhabit the same World that our first fore-fathers did, nor scarce to be the same race of Men. Our life now is so short and vain, as if we came into the World only to see it and leave it; by that time we begin to understand our selves a little, and to know where we are, and how to act our part, we must leave the stage, and give place to others as meer Novices as we were our selves at our first entrance. And this short life is imployed, in a great measure, to preserve our selves from necessity, or diseases, or injuries of the Air, or other inconveniences; to make one man easie, ten must work and do drudgery; The Body takes up so much time, we have little leisure for Contemplation, or to cultivate the mind. The Earth doth not yield us food, but with much labour and industry, and what was her freewill offering before, or an easie liberality can scarce now be extorted from her. Neither are the Heavens more favourable, sometimes in one extream, sometimes in another; The Air often impure or infectious, and, for a great part of the year, Nature her self seems to be sick or dead. To this vanity the external Creation is made subject as well as Mankind, and so must continue till the restitution of all things.

Can we imagine, in those happy Times and Places we are treating of, that things stood in this same posture? are these the fruits of the Golden Age and of Paradise, or consistent with their happiness? And the remedies of these evils must be so universal, you cannot give them to one place or Region of the Earth, but all must participate: For these are things that flow from the course of the Heavens, or such general causes as extend at once to all Nature. If there was a perpetual Spring and perpetual Æquinox in Paradise, there was at the same time a perpetual Æquinox all the Earth over; unless you place Paradisein the middle of the Torrid Zone. So also the long lives of the Ante-diluvians was an universal Effect, and must have had an universal Cause. ’Tis true, in some single parts or Regions of the present Earth, the Inhabitants live generally longer than in others, but do not approach in any measure the Age of their Ante-diluvian fore-fathers; and that degree of longævity which they have above the rest, they owe to the calmness and tranquility of their Heavens and Air; which is but an imperfect participation of that cause which was once Universal, and had its effect throughout the whole Earth. And as to the fertility of this Earth, though in some spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others, and more delicious, yet that of the first Earth was a fertility of another kind, being spontaneous, and extending to the production of Animals, which cannot be without a favourable concourse from the Heavens also.

Thus much in general; We will now go over those three forementioned Characters more distinctly, to show by their unsuitableness to the present state of Nature, that neither the whole Earth, as it is now, nor any part of it, could be Paradisiacal. The perpetual Spring, which belonged to the Golden Age, and to Paradise, is an happiness this present Earth cannot pretend to, nor is capable of, unless we could transfer the Sun from the Ecliptick to the Æquator, or, which is as easie, perswade the Earth to change its posture to the Sun. If Archimedeshad found a place to plant his Machines in for removing of the Earth, all that I should have desired of him, would have been only to have given it an heave at one end, and set it a little to rights again with the Sun, that we might have enjoyed the comfort of a perpetual Spring, which we have lost by its dislocation ever since the Deluge. And there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a Paradisiacalstate than this unity and equality of Seasons, where that cannot be, ’tis in vain to seek for the rest of Paradise.

That spontaneous fruitfulness of the ground was a thing peculiar to the primigenial soil, which was so tempered, as made it more luxuriant at that time than it could ever be afterwards; and as that rich temperament was spent, so by degrees it grew less fertile. The Origin or production of Animals out of the Earth, depended not only upon this vital constitution of the soil at first, but also upon such a posture and aspect of the Heavens, as favoured, or at least permitted, Nature, to make her best works out of this prepared matter, and better than could be made in that manner, after the Flood. Noah, we see, had orders given him to preserve the Races of living Creatures in his Ark, when the Old World was destroyed, which is an argument to me, that Providence foresaw that the Earth would not be capable to produce them under its new form; and that, not only for want of fitness in the soil, but because of the diversity of Seasons which were then to take place, whereby Nature would be disturbed in her work, and the subject to be wrought upon would not continue long enough in the same due temper. But this part of the second Character concerning the Original of Animals, deserves to be further examined and explained.

The first principles of life must be tender and ductile, that they may yield to all the motions and gentle touches of Nature; otherwise it is not possible that they should be wrought with that curiosity, and drawn into all those little fine threds and textures, that we see and admire in some parts of the Bodies of Animals. And as the matter must be so constituted at first, so it must be kept in a due temper till the work be finisht, without any excess of heat or cold; and accordingly we see, that Nature hath made provision in all sorts of Creatures, whether Oviparous or Viviparous, that the first rudiments of life should be preserved from all injuries of the Air, and kept in a moderate warmth. Eggs are enclosed in a Shell, or ffilm, and must be cherisht with an equal and gentle heat, to begin formation and continue it, otherwise the work miscarries: And in Viviparous Creatures, the materials of life are safely lodged in the Females womb, and conserved in a fit temperature ’twixt heat and cold, while the Causes that Providence hath imployed, are busie at work, fashioning and placing and joyning the parts, in that due order which so wonderful a Fabrick requires.

Let us now compare these things with the birth of Animals in the new-made World, when they first rose out of the Earth, to see what provision could be made there for their safety and nourishment, while they were a-making, and when newly made; And though we take all advantages we can, and suppose both the Heavens and the Earth favourable, a fit soil and a warm and constant temper of the Air, all will be little enough to make this way of production feasible or probable: But if we suppose there was then the same inconstancy of the Heavens that is now, the same vicissitude of seasons, and the same inequality of heat and cold, I do not think it at all possible that they could be so formed, or being new-formed, preserved and nourisht. ’Tis true, some little Creatures that are of short dispatch in their formation, and find nourishment enough wheresoever they are bred, might be produced and brought to perfection in this way, notwithstanding and inequality of Seasons; because they are made all at a heat, as I may so say, begun and ended within the compass of one Season; But the great question is concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals, that require a long stay in the womb, to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the World. Such Animals being big and strong, must have a pretty hardness in their bones, and force and firmness in their Muscles and Joynts, before they can bear their own weight, and exercise the common motions of their body: And accordingly we see Nature hath ordained for these a longer time of gestation, that their limbs and members might have time to acquire strength and solidity. Besides the young ones of these Animals have commonly the milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth, which is a very proper nourishment, and like to that which they had before in the womb; and by this means their stomachs are prepared by degrees for courser food: Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been weaned as soon as they were born, or as soon as they were separated from their Mother the Earth, and therefore must be allowed a longer time of continuing there.

These things being considered, we cannot in reason but suppose that, these Terrigenous Animals were as long, or longer, a-perfecting, than our Viviparous, and were not separated from the body of the Earth for ten, twelve, eighteen, or more months, according as their Nature was; and seeing in this space of time they must have suffered, upon the common Hypothesis, all vicissitudes and variety of seasons, and great excesses of heat and cold, which are things incompatible with the tender principles of life and the formation of living Creatures, as we have shown before; we may reasonably and safely conclude, that Nature had not, when the World began, the same course she hath now, or that the Earth was not then in its present posture and constitution: Seeing, I say, these first spontaneous Births, which both the holy Writ, Reason, and Antiquity seem to allow, could not be finisht and brought to maturity, nor afterwards preserved and nourisht, upon any other supposition.

Longævity is the last Character to be considered, and as inconsistent with the present state of the Earth as any other. There are many things in the story of the first Ages that seem strange, but nothing so prodigy-like as the long lives of those Men; that their houses of Clay should stand eight or nine hundred years and upwards, and those we build of the hardest Stone and Marble will not now last so long. This hath excited the curiosity of ingenious and learned men in all Ages to enquire after the possible Causes of that longævity; and if it had been always in conjunction with innocency of life and manners, and expired when that expired, we might have thought it some peculiar blessing or reward attending that; but ’twas common to good and bad, and lasted till the Deluge, whereas mankind was degenerate long before. Amongst natural Causes, some have imputed it to the sobriety and simplicity of their diet and manner of living in those days, that they eat no flesh, and had not all those provocations to gluttony which Wit and Vice have since invented. This might have some effect, but not possibly to that degree and measure that we speak of. There are many Monastical persons now that live abstemiously all their lives, and yet they think an hundred years a very great age amongst them. Others have imputed it to the excellency of their Fruits and some unknown vertue in their Herbs and Plants in those days; But they may as well say nothing, as say that which can neither be Evidenced nor understood. It could not be either the quantity or quality of their food that was the cause of their long lives, for the Earth was curst long before the Deluge, and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless (for the generality) than ours is now; yet we do not see that their longævity decreast at all, from the beginning of the World to the Flood. Methusalahwas Noah's Grandfather, but one intire remove from the Deluge, and he lived longer than any of his Fore-fathers. That food that will nourish the parts and keep us in health, is also capable to keep us in long life, if there be no impediments otherwise; for to continue health is to continue life; as that fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a flame, will preserve it as long as you please, if you add fresh fewel, and no external causes hinder: Neither do we observe that in those parts of the present Earth where people live longer than in others, that there is any thing extraordinary in their food, but that the difference is chiefly from the Air and the temperateness of the Heavens; And if the Ante-diluvians had not enjoyed that advantage in a peculiar manner, and differently from what any parts of the Earth do now, they would never have seen seven, eight, or nine hundred years go over their heads, though they had been nourisht with Nectarand Ambrosia.

Others have thought that the long lives of those men of the old World proceeded from the strength of their Stamina, or first principles of their bodies; which if they were now as strong in us, they think we should still live as long as they did. This could not be the sole and adæquate cause of their longævity, as will appear both from History and Reason. Shem, who was born before the Flood, and had in his body all the vertue of the Ante-diluvian Staminaand constitution, fell three hundred years short of the age of his fore-fathers, because the greatest part of his life was past after the Flood. That their Staminawere stronger than ours are, I am very ready to believe, and that their bodies were greater; and any race of strong men, living long in health, would have children of a proportionably strong constitution with themselves; but then the question is, How was this interrupted? We that are their posterity, why do not we inherit their long lives? how was this constitution broken at the Deluge, and how did the Stamina fail so fast when that came? why was there so great a Crisisthen and turn of life, or why was that the period of their strength?

We see this longævity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood, and after that it sunk by gentler degrees, but was still in motion and declension till it was fixt at length, before David's time, in that which path been the common standard of man's age ever since: As when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil, it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that Air and Soil, and then it stands. That the age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Ante-diluvian measure to the present, I impute it to the remaining Staminaof those first Ages, and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees. We see the Blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another Climate, but their posterity changeth by little and little, and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the Country where they are. Thus by the change of Nature that happened at the Flood, the unhappy influence of the Air and unequal Seasons weakened by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of the parts, which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years, if the Heavens had continued their course as formerly, or the Earth its position. To conclude this particular, If any think that the Antediluvian longævity proceeded only from the Stamina, or the meer strength of their bodies, and would have been so under any constitution of the Heavens, let them resolve themselves these Questions; first, why these Stamina, or this strength of constitution failed? Secondly, why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge? Thirdly, why in such proportions as it hath done since the Deluge? And lastly, why it hath stood so long immovable, and without any further diminution? Within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety; and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years, or scarce any thing at all. Who considers the reasons of these things, and the true resolution of these questions, will be satisfied, that to understand the causes of that longevity something more must be considered than the make and strength of their bodies; which, though they had been made as strong as the Behemothor Leviathan, could not have lasted so many Ages, if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes, such as the present state of Nature doth not admit of.

By this short review of the three general Characters of Paradiseand the Golden Age, we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present form and order of the Earth. Who can pretend to assign any place or Region in this Terraqueous Globe, Island or Continent, that is capable of these conditions, or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradises, or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture-Paradise. But where then, will you say, must we look for it, if not upon this Earth? This puts us more into despair of finding it than ever; ’tis not above nor below, in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions: no, doubtless ’twas upon the surface of the Earth, but of the Primitive Earth, whose form and properties as they were different from this, so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal, both according to the fore-mentioned Characters, and all other qualities and priviledges reasonably ascribed to Paradise.