THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VIII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Footnotes

78:1 תהומָה מן

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Footnotes

64:2 As at the aperturea. a.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER IV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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