THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER VIII

The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity; The ancient Chaos explained; The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone; The change of the Poles of the World; The doctrine of the Mundane Egg; How Americawas first peopled; How Paradisewithin the Circle of the Moon.

WE have now dispatched the Theory of the Primæval Earth, and revived a forgotten World; ’Tis pity the first and fairest works of Nature should be lost out of the memory of Man, and that we should so much dote upon the Ruines, as never to think upon the Original Structure. As the modern Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue, make out all the other parts and proportions; so from the broken and scattered limbs of the first World we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick again; and renew the prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first see the light, and first entertained Man, when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage.

We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge, and of Paradise; but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two things which they want, the light will not confine it self to those two objects, but shows all the other in the room; so, methinks, we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all Antiquity, in seeking after these two things, or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the Primæval Earth, upon which they depended. For in ancient Learning there are many Discourses, and many Conclusions delivered to us, that are so obscure and confused, and so remote from the present state of things, that one cannot well distinguish, whether they are fictions or realities; and there is no way to distinguish with certainty, but by a clear Theory upon the same subjects; which showing us the truth directly, and independently upon them, shows us also by reflection, how far they are true or false, and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood. And the present Theory being of great extent, we shall find it serviceable in many things, for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity.

To begin with their Ancient CHAOS, what a dark story have they made of it, both their Philosophers and Poets; and how fabulous in appearance? ’Tis delivered as confusedly as the Mass it self could be, and hath not been reduced to order, nor indeed made intelligible by any. They tell us of moralprinciples in the Chaos instead of natural, of strife, and discord, and divisionon the one hand, and Love, Friendship, and Venuson the other; and, after a long contest, Love got the better of Discord, and united the disagreeing principles: This is one part of their story. Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind ofGenealogieor Pedigree; Chaoswas the common Parent of all, and from Chaos sprung, first, Night, and Tartarus, or Oceanus; Night was a teeming Mother, and of her were born Ætherand the Earth; The Earth conceived by the influences of Æther, and brought forth Man and all Animals.

This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy; yet when ’tis set in a true light, and compared with our Theory of the Chaos, ’twill appear a pretty regular account, how the World was formed at first, or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions, rising one after another, and propagated one from another, as Children and Posterity from a common Parent. We showed in the first Book, Chap. 5, how the Chaos, from an uniform mass, wrought it self into several Regions or Elements; the grossest part sinking to the Center, upon this lay the mass of Water, and over the Water was a Region of dark, impure, caliginous Air; This impure, caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night, and the mass of Water Oceanusor Tartarus, for those two terms with them are often of the like force, Tartarusbeing Oceanusinclosed and locked up: Thus we have the first off-spring of the Chaos, or its first-born twins, Noxand Oceanus. Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees, as the more subtle parts flew upwards, and composed the Æther; so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the Water, or the liquid mass; and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface, these two incorporate there, and by their mixture and union compose a Body of Earth quite round the mass of Waters: And this was the first habitable Earth, which as it was, you see, the Daughter of Noxand Oceanus, so it was the Mother of all other things, and all living Creatures, which at the beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful womb.

This doctrine of the Chaos, for the greater pomp of the business, the Ancients called their Theogonia, or the Genealogy of the Gods; for they gave their Gods, at least their Terrestrial Gods, an original and beginning; and all the Elements and greater portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses, or their Deities presided over them in such a manner, that the names were used promiscuously for one another. We also mentioned before some moral principles, which they placed in the Chaos, Erisand Eros; Strife, discord, and disaffection which prevailed at first, and afterward Love, kindness and union got the upper hand, and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gathered together the separated Elements, and united them into an habitable World. This is all easily understood, if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World, as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter; for in the first commotion of the Chaos, after an intestine struggle of all the parts, the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses, and in this state and posture things continued a good while, which the Ancients, after their Poetick or Moral way, called the Reign of Eris or Contention, of hatred, flight and disaffection; and if things had always continued in that System, we should never have had an habitable World. But Love and good Nature conquered at length, Venus rise out of the Sea, and received into her bosom, and intangled in her imbraces the falling Æther, viz. The parts of lighter earth, which were mixt with the Air in that first separation, and gave it the name of Night, fell down upon the oily parts of the Sea-mass, which lay floating upon the surface of it, and by that union and conjunction, a new Body, and a new World was produced, which was the first habitable Earth. This is the interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos, and the resolution of it into plain natural History: Which you may see more fully discust in the LatinTreatise.

We have already explained, in several places, the Golden Ageof the Ancients, and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real, and what Poetical, in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World. And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth, as Plato's Atlantis, which he says, was absorpt by an Earthquake, and an inundation, as the Primæval Earth was; or his ÆtherealEarth mentioned in his Phædo, which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth; makes it to have long-lived inhabitants, and to be without Rains and Storms, as that first Earth was also; or the pendulous Gardensof Alcinous, or such like, to which nothing answers in present Nature, by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth, we find an easie explication of them. We have also explained what the Antichthonand Antichthonesof the Ancients were, and what the true ground of that distinction was. But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone, if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients, and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing, nor any foundation for it. I cannot believe that this was so universally received upon a slight presumption only, because it lay under the course of the Sun, if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Æquator in his course and motion that he hath now, and made the same variety of seasons; whereby even the honest parts of the Earth have a Winter, or something equivalent to it. But if we apply this to the Primæval Earth, whose posture was direct to the Sun, standing always fixt in its Equinoctial, we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat, there being no difference of seasons, noge ofr any chan weather, the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance, and in the same direction. Besides this, the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such, that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts, as we have shown before; by which means, and the want of Rain, that Region must necessarily be turned into a dry Desart. Now this being really the state of the first Earth, the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original, and continued still with posterity after the Deluge, though the causes then were taken away; for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time, kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant, till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it. As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at first, occasioned a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast.

This gives an easie account, and, I think, the true cause, of that opinion, amongst the Ancients generally received, That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable. I say generally received; for not only the Poets, both Greekand Latin, but their Philosophers, Astronomers and Geographers, had the same notion, and deliver'd the same doctrine; as Aristotle, Cleomedes, Achilles Tatius, Ptolomy, Cicero, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, Macrobius, &c. And to speak truth, the whole doctrine of the Zones is calculated more properly for the first Earth, than for the present; for the divisions and bounds of them now, are but arbitrary, being habitable all over, and having no visible distinction; whereas they were then determined by Nature, and the Globe of the Earth was really divided into so many Regions of a very different aspect and quality; which would have appeared at a distance, if they had been lookt upon from the Clouds, or from the Moon, as Jupiter's Belts, or as so many Girdles or Swathing-bands about the body of the Earth: And so the word imports, and so the Ancients use to call them Cinguliand Fasciæ. But in the present form of the Earth, if it was seen at a distance, no such distinction would appear in the parts of it, nor scarce any other but that of Land and Water, and of Mountains and Valleys, which are nothing to the purpose of Zones. And to add this note further, When the Earth lay in this regular form, divided into Regions or Walks, if I may so call them, as this gave occasion of its distinction by Zones, so if we might consider all that Earth as a Paradise, and Paradiseas a Garden, (for it is always called so in Scripture, and in JewishAuthors) as this Torrid Zone, bare of Grass and Trees, made a kind of Gravel-walk in the middle: so there was a green Walk on either hand of it, made by the temperate Zones; and beyond those lay a Canal, which watered the Garden from either side.

But to return to Antiquity; We may add under this Head another observation or doctrine amongst the Ancients, strange enough in appearance, which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding Theory; They say, The Polesof the World did once change their situation, and were at first in another posture from what they are in now, till that inclination happened; This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of, as Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Diogenes, Leucippus, Democritus; as may be seen in Laertius, and in Plutarch; and the Stars, they say, at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform manner. This is no more than what we have observed and told you in other words, namely, that the Earth changed its posture at the Deluge, and thereby made these seeming changes in the Heavens; its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick, which now point to the Poles of the Æquator, and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis; and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms; this makes the different aspect of the Heavens, and of its Poles: And I am apt to think, that those changes in the course of the Stars, which the Ancients sometimes speak of, and especially the Ægyptians, if they did not proceed from defects in their Calendar, had no other Physical account than this.

And as they say the Poles of the World were in another situation at first, so at first they say, there was no variety of seasons in the Year, as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest, and still runs along with the Theory. And you may observe, that all these things we have instanced in hitherto, are but links of the same chain, in connexion and dependance upon one another. When the Primæval Earth was made out of the Chaos, its form and posture was such, as, of course, brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the remembrance of: though now in another state of Nature they seem very strange; especially being disguised, as some of them are, by their odd manner of representing them. That the Poles of the World stood once in another posture; That the Year had no diversity of Seasons; That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable; That the two Hemispheres had no possibility of intercourse, and such like: These all hang upon the same string; or lean one upon another as Stones in the same Building; whereof we have, by this Theory, laid the very foundation bare, that you may see what they all stand upon, and in what order.

There is still one remarkable Notion or Doctrine amongst the Ancients, which we have not spoken to; ’tis partly Symbolical, and the propriety of the Symbol, or of the Application of it, hath been little understood; ’Tis their doctrine of the Mundane Egg, or their comparing the World to an Egg, and especially in the original composition of it. This seems to be a mean comparison, the World and an Egg, what proportion, or what resemblance betwixt these two things? And yet I do not know any Symbolical doctrine, or conclusion, that hath been so universally entertained by the Mystæ, or Wise and Learned, of all Nations; as hath been noted before in the Fifth Chapter of the First Book, and at large in the LatinTreatise. ’Tis certain, that by the Worldin this similitude, they do not mean the Great Universe, for that hath neither Figure, nor any determinate form of composition, and it would be a great vanity and rashness in any one to compare this to an Egg; The works of God are immense, as his nature is infinite, and we cannot make any image or resemblance of either of them; but this comparison is to be understood of the Sublunary World, or of the Earth; And for a general key to Antiquity upon this Argument, we may lay this down as a Maxim or Canon, That what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World, or concerning the Original of it from a Chaos, or about its periods and dissolution, are never to be understood of the Great Universe, but of our Earth, or of this Sublunary and Terrestrial World. And this observation being made, do but reflect upon our Theory of the Earth, the manner of its composition at first, and the figure of it, being compleated, and you will need no other interpreter to understand this mystery. We have showed there, that the figure of it, when finisht, was Oval, and the inward form of it was a frame of four Regions incompassing one another, where that of Fire lay in the middle like the Yolk, and a shell of Earth inclosed them all. This gives a solution so easie and natural, and shows such an aptness and elegancy in the representation, that one cannot doubt, upon a view, and compare of circumstances, but that we have truly found out the Riddle of the Mundane Egg.

To these illustrations of Antiquity in things Natural and Geographical, give me leave to add, and to resolve from the same Theory, one Historical difficulty; and ’twill seem, ’tis likely, of no less moment than any we have hitherto insisted upon, and I am sure hath exercised the Pens of many Learned men with small or no success. ’Tis to give an account of the Original of the people of America, how that Continent was first peopled and inhabited, or any other Continent distinct from ours, wherein we suppose Adamto have lived, and to have propagated his posterity. ’Tis certain, that all Mankind came from one Head, or from one common Parent; Certain, I say, according to the History of Moses, confirm'd by Apostolical authority; and ’tis also admitted on all hands that Adamafter his expulsion out of Paradise, wheresoever he was before, lived in this Continent, which being encompassed with great Seas, and separate from Americaon either side, how could the children of Adampass the wide Ocean, to hunt out remote habitations in America? How easie is the answer to this great Question, which hath imployed the time of so many Learned men to resolve? Or rather how suddenly doth it vanish at the sight of truth, as a phantom at the approach of light? The ground sinks under it that it seemed to stand upon; Adam's Earth was not broken into Continents and Islands, as ours is, nor the parts of it separated by Seas and Mountains; ’twas one continued and smooth surface, and gave free and easie passage from the rising to the setting Sun: So according as his progeny increast, and new swarms were ready to go abroad, they might spread themselves on either hand, East and West, without any interruption or impediment; neither Sea, Mountain, nor Desart would stand in their way. ’Tis true, the passage was not so free North and South, they could not go out of one Hemisphere into another, but Providence seems to have made provision for that, in transplanting Adaminto this Hemisphere, after he had laid the foundation of a World in the Other.

We see then the great difficulty concerning the peopling the several Continents and Islands of the Earth, and particularly of America, easily removed by this Hypothesis; The propagation of Mankind, and of all sorts of Animals into those several portions of the World, may readily be understood, if you admit the true form of the first Earth: But without that ’tis an endless controversie, as those commonly are that proceed upon a false supposition. I will not examine here the several projects and methods that have been proposed, some by one Author, and some by another, for getting people into America; they confute one another, methinks, very well; and to show, as we have done, that the ground they go upon is imaginary, is a compendious way of confuting them all together. However, those that will not admit our Hypothesis, concerning the continuity and uniformity of the first Earth, stand obliged still to give us an account of the propagation of Mankind from one Head, and how the posterity of Adamgot into America.

’Twill be said, possibly, that this doth not intirely remove the difficulty, because it returns again after the Flood; and then we suppose the Earth broken into Continents and Islands, in the same manner that it is now; How then did the posterity of Noahget into America, to people it after the Flood? I do not know that ever they got into Americatill Columbuswent thither in the last Age, who, for any thing I know, was the first of Noah's progeny that ever set foot in that Continent. Scripture tells us, that all Mankind rise from one Head, namely, from Adam, and his fault was derived to posterity, but no where that Noahwas the common Head of Mankind that hath been since his time, nor does any doctrine of faith, that I know of, depend upon that supposition. When the great frame of the Earth broke at the Deluge, Providence fore-see into how many Continents it would be divided after the ceasing of the Flood, and accordingly, as we may reasonably suppose, made provision to save a remnant in every Continent, that the race of Mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them. What provision he made in our Continent we know from Sacred History, but as that takes notice of no other Continent but ours, so neither could it take notice of any method that was used there for saving of a remnant of men; but ’twere great presumption, methinks, to imagine that Providence had a care of none but us, or could not find out ways of preservation in other places, as well as in that where our habitations were to be. Asia, Africkand Europewere repeopled by the Sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, but we read nothing of their going over into America, or sending any Colonies thither; and that World which is near as big as ours, must have stood long without people, or any thing of Humane race in it, after the Flood, if it stood so till this was full, or till men navigated the Ocean, and by chance discovered it: It seems more reasonable to suppose, that there was a stock providentially reserved there, as well as here, out of which they sprung again; but we do not pretend in an Argument of this nature to define or determine any thing positively. To conclude, as this is but a secondary difficulty, and of no great force, so neither is it any thing peculiar to us, or to our Hypothesis, but alike common to both; and if they can propose any reasonable way, whereby the Sons of Noahmight be transplanted into America, with all my heart; but all the ways that I have met with hitherto, have seemed to me meer fictions, or meer presumptions. Besides, finding Birds and Beasts there, which are no where upon our Continent, nor would live in our Countries if brought hither, ’tis a fair conjecture that they were not carried from us, but originally bred and preserved there.

Thus much for the illustration of Antiquity in some points of Humane literature, by our Theory of the Primæval Earth; There is also in Christian Antiquitya Tradition or Doctrine, that appears as obscure and as much a Paradox as any of these, and better deserves an illustration, because it relates more closely and expressly to our present subject: ’Tis that Notion or Opinion amongt the Ancients concerning Paradise, that it was seated as high as the Sphere of the Moon, or within the Lunar Circle. This looks very strange, and indeed extravagantly, at first sight, but the wonder will cease, if we understand this not of Paradise taken apart from the rest of the Earth, but of the whole Primæval Earth, wherein the Seat of Paradisewas; That was really seated much higher than the present Earth, and may be reasonably supposed to have been as much elevated as the tops of our Mountains are now. And that phrase of reaching to the Sphere of the Moon, signifies no more than those other expressions of reaching to Heaven, or reaching above the Clouds, which are phrases commonly used to express the height of Buildings, or of Mountains, and such like things: So the Builders of Babelsaid, they would make a Tower should reach to Heaven; Olympusand Parnassusare said by the Poets to reach to Heaven, or to rise above the Clouds; And Plinyand Solinususe this very expression of the Lunar Circle, when they describe the height of Mount Atlas, Eductus in viciniam Lunaris Circuli. The Ancients, I believe, aimed particularly by this phrase, to express an height above the middle Region, or above our Atmosphere, that Paradisemight be serene; and where our Atmosphere ended, they reckoned the Sphere of the Moon begun, and therefore said it reached to the Sphere of the Moon. Many of the Christian Fathers exprest their opinion concerning the high situation of Paradisein plain and formal terms, as St. Basil, Damascen, Moses Bar Cepha, &c. but this phrase of reaching to the Lunar Circleis repeated by several of them, and said to be of great Antiquity. Aquinas, Albertus, and others, ascribe it to Bede, but many to St. Austin; and therefore Ambrosius Catharinusis angry with their great Schoolman, that he should derive it from Bede, seeing St. Austinwriting to Orosius, delivered this doctrine, which surely, says He, St. Austinneither feigned nor dreamed only, but had received it from Antiquity: And from so great Antiquity, that it was no less than Apostolical, if we credit Albertus Magnus, and the ancient Books he appeals to; for He says this Tradition was derived as high as from St. Thomasthe Apostle. His words are these, after he had delivered his own opinion. Hoc tamen dico, &c. But this I say, without prejudice to the better opinion, for I have found it in some most ancient Books, that Thomasthe Apostle was the Author of that opinion, which is usually attributed to Bedeand Strabus, namely, that Paradisewas so high as to reach to the Lunar Circle. But thus much concerning this Opinion, and concerning Antiquity.

To conclude all, we see this Theory, which was drawn only by a thred of Reason, and the Laws of Nature, abstractly from all Antiquity, notwithstanding casts a light upon many passages there, which were otherwise accounted fictions, or unintelligible truths; and though we do not alledge these as proofs of the Theory, for it carries its own light and proof with it, yet whether we will or no, they do mutually confirm, as well as illustrate, one another; And ’tis a pleasure also, when one hath wrought out truth by meer dint of thinking, and examination of causes, and proposed it plainly and openly, to meet with it again amongst the Ancients, disguised, and in an old fashioned dress: scarce to be known or discovered, but by those that before-hand knew it very well. And it would be a further pleasure and satisfaction, to have rendered those Doctrines and Notions, for the future, intelligible and useful to others, as well as delightful to our selves.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER VII

The place of Paradisecannot be determined from the Theory only, nor from Scripture only; what the sence of Antiquity was concerning it, both as to the Jews and Heathens, and especially as to the Christian Fathers; That they generally placed it out of this Continent, in the Southern Hemisphere.

WE have now prepared our work for the last finishing stroaks; described the first Earth, and compared it with the Present; and not only the two Earths, but in a good measure the whole State and Oeconomy of those two Worlds. It remains only to determine the place of Paradisein that Primæval Earth; I say, in that Primæval Earth, for we have driven the point so far already, that the seat of it could not be in the present Earth, whose Form, Site, and Air are so disposed, as could not consist with the first and most indispensable properties of Paradise: And accordingly, we see with what ill success our modern Authors have ranged over the Earth, to find a fit spot of ground to plant Paradisein; some would set it on the top of an high Mountain, that it might have good Air and fair weather, as being above the Clouds, and the middle Region; but then they were at a loss for Water, which made a great part of the pleasure and beauty of that place; Others therefore would seat it in a Plain, or in a River-Island, that they might have Water enough, but then it would be subject to the injuries of the Air, and foul weather at the seasons of the Year, from which, both Reason and all Authority have exempted Paradise. ’Tis like seeking a perfect beauty in a mortal Body, there are so many things required to it, as to complexion, Features, Proportions and Air, that they never meet altogether in one person; neither can all the properties of a Terrestrial Paradiseever meet together in one place, though never so well chosen, in this present Earth.

But in the Primæval Earth, which we have described, ’tis easie to find a Seat that had all those beauties and conveniences; we have every where, through the temperate Climates, a clear and constant Air, a fruitful Soil, pleasant Waters, and all the general characters of Paradise; so that the trouble will be rather, in that competition, what part or Region to pitch upon in particular. But to come as near it as we can, we must remember in the first place, how that Earth was divided into two Hemispheres, distant and separated from one another, not by an imaginary line, but by a real boundary that could not be past; so as the first inquiry will be, in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise. To answer this only according to our Theory, I confess, I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another, I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence, that one had above the other; and I am apt to think, that depended rather upon the will of God, and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth, than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other, for planting in it the Garden of God. Neither doth Scripture determine, with any certainty, either Hemisphere for the place of it; for when ’tis said to be in Eden, or to be the Garden of Eden, ’tis no more than the Garden of pleasureor delight, as the word signifies: And even the Septuagint, who render this word Eden, as a proper name twice, (Gen. 2. ver. 8 & 10) do in the same story render it twice as a common name, signifying τρυ, pleasure, (Chap. 2. 15 and Chap. 3. 24) and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel(Chap. 31. 9, 16, 18) where this Garden of Edenis spoken of again. Some have thought that the word Mekiddim(Geb. 2. 8) was to be rendered in the East, or Eastward, as we read it, and therefore determined the site of Paradise; but ’tis only the SeptuagintTranslate it so, all the other GreekVersions, and St. Jerom, the Vulgate, the ChaldeeParaphrase, and the Syriackrender it from the beginning, or in the beginning, or to that effect. And we that do not believe the Septuagintto have been infallible, or inspired, have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest. Some also think the place of Paradisemay be determined by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it, and the Countries they ran thorough; but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain, and two of them altogether unintelligible. Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head, as these are said to have done, either at the entrance or issue of the Garden. ’Tis true, if you admit our Hypothesis, concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge, then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before, the general Source is changed, and their Chanels are all broke up; but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth, but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool, after it had once covered the surface of the Earth, I do not see why it should make any great havock or confusion in it; and they that go that way, are therefore the more obliged to show us still the Rivers of Paradise. Several of the Ancients, as we shall show hereafter, supposed these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere, and if so, the Seat of Paradisemight be there too. But let them first agree amongst themselves, concerning these Rivers, and the Countries they run thorough, and we will undertake to show, that there cannot be any such in this Continent.

Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine, nor Scripture, where the place of Paradisewas, nor in whether Hemisphere, we must appeal to Antiquity, or the opinions of the Ancients; for I know no other Guide, but one of these three, Scripture, Reason, and ancient Tradition; and where the two former are silent, it seems very reasonable to consult the third. And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough, we will consider what the Jews, what the Heathens, and what the ChristianFathers have said or determined concerning the Seat of Paradise. The Jewsand HebrewDoctors place it in neither Hemisphere, but betwixt both, under the Æquinoctial, as you may see plainly in Abravanel, Manasses Ben-Israel, Maimonides, Aben Ezra, and others. But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line, is because they supposed it certain, as Aben Ezratells us, that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise, and they did not know how that could be, unless it stood under the Æquinoctial. But we have shown another method, wherein that perpetual Æquinox came to pass, and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth, which if they had been aware of, and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable, having removed their Paradisethus far from home, they would probably have removed it a little further, into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere.

The Ancient Heathens, Poets and Philosophers, had the notion of Paradise, or rather of several Paradisesin the Earth; and ’tis remarkable, that they placed them generally, if not all of them, out of this Continent; in the Ocean, or beyond it, or in another Orb or Hemisphere. The Garden of the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields, Ogygiaand Toprabane, as it is described by Diodorus Siculus, with others such like; which as they were all characterized like so many Paradises, so they were all seated out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them.

Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere, or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise; But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair, is Christian Antiquity, the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument. And we may safely say in the first place, negatively, that none of the Christian Fathers, Latinor Greek, ever placed Paradisein Mesopotamia; that is a conceit and invention of some modern Authors, which hath been much incouraged of late, because it gave men ease and rest as to further inquiries, in an argument they could not well manage. Secondly, we may affirm, that none of the Christian Fathers have placed Paradisein any determinate Region of our Continent, AsiaAfrickor Europe. I have read of one or two Authors, I think, that fansied Paradiseto have been at Jerusalem, but ’twas a meer fancy, that no body regarded or pursued. The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise, was quite another thing from what it is now of late: They disputed and controverted, whether Paradisewas Corporeal, or Intellectual only, and Allegorical; This was the grand point amongst them. Then of those that thought it Corporeal, some placed it high in the Air, some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains, and many beyond the Ocean, or in another World; And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them; nor do we find that they named any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise, or that one contested for one spot of ground, and another for another, which is the vain temerity of modern Authors; as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradisestood, or could set their foot upon the Center of the Garden. These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise, just as some modern Poets have the notion of the Elysian Fields, which Homerand the Ancients placed remote on the extremities of the Earth, and these would make a little green Meadow in Campania Felixto be the famed Elysium.

Thus much concerning the Fathers, negatively; but to discover as far as we can, what their positive Assertions were in this Argument, we may observe, that though their opinions be differently exprest, they generally concenter in this, that the Southern Hemispherewas the Seat of Paradise. This, I say, seems manifestly to be the sence of Christian Antiquity and Tradition, so far as there is any thing definitive in the remains we have upon that subject. Some of the Fathers did not believe Paradiseto be Corporeal and Local, and those are to be laid aside in the first place, as to this point; Others that thought it Local, did not determine any thing (as most of them indeed did not) concerning the particular place of it; But the rest that did, though they have exprest themselves in various ways, and under various forms, yet, upon a due interpretation, they all meet in one common and general conclusion, That Paradisewas seated beyond the Æquinoctial, or in the other Hemisphere.

And to understand this aright, we must reflect, in the first place, upon the form of the Primæval Earth, and of the two Hemispheres of which it consisted, altogether incommunicable one with another, by reason of the Torrid Zone betwixt them; so as those two Hemispheres were then as two distinct Worlds, or distinct Earths, that had no commerce with one another. And this Notion or Tradition we find amongst Heathen Authors, as well as Christian, this Opposite Earth being called by them Antichthon, and its Inhabitants Antichthones: For those words comprehend both the Antipodesand Antœci, or all beyond the Line, as is manifest from their best Authors, as Achilles Tatius, and Cæsar Germanicusupon Aratus, Probus Grammaticus, Censorinus, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny. And these were called another World, and lookt upon as another stock and race of Mankind, as appears from Ciceroand Macrobius; But as the latter part was their mistake, so the former is acknowledged by Christian Authors, as well as others; and particularly St. Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, mentions a World, or Worlds beyond the Ocean, subject to Divine Providence, and the great Lord of Nature, as well as ours. This passage of St. Clementis also cited by St. Jerom, in his Commentary upon Ephes. 2. 2 and by Origen Periarchon, where the Inhabittants of that other World are called Antichthones.

I make this remark in the first place, that we may understand the true sence and importance of those phrases and expressions amongst the Ancients, when they say Paradisewas in another World. Which are not to be so understood, as if they thought Paradisewas in the Moon, or in Jupiter, or hung above like a Cloud or a Meteor, they were not so extravagant; but that Paradisewas in another Hemisphere, which was called Antichthon, another Earth, or another Worldfrom Ours; and justly reputed so, because of an impossibility of commerce or intercourse betwixt their respective Inhabitants. And this remark being premised, we will now distribute the Christian Authors and Fathers that have delivered their opinion concerning the place of Paradise, into three or four ranks or orders; and though they express themselves differently, you will see, when duly examined and expounded, they all conspire and concur in the forementioned conclusion, Thatthe Seat of Paradisewas in the other Hemisphere.

In the first rank then we will place and reckon those that have set Paradisein another World, or in another Earth; seeing, according to the foregoing Explication, that is the same thing, as to affirm it seated beyond the Torrid Zone in the other Hemisphere. In this number are Ephrem Syrus, Moses Bar Cepha, Tatianus, and of later date Jacobus de Valentia. To these are to be added again such Authors as say, that Adam, when he was turned out of Paradise, was brought into our Earth, or into our Region of the Earth; for this is tantamount with the former; And this seems to be the sence of St. Jeromin several places against Jovinian, as also of Constantine, in his Oration in Eusebius, and is positively asserted by Sulpitius Severus. And lastly, those Authors that represent Paradiseas remote from our World, and inaccessible, so St. Austin, Procopius Gazeus, Beda, Strabus Fuldensis, Historia Scholiastica, and others, these, I say, pursue the same notion of Antiquity; for what is remote from our World (that is, from our Continent, as 1 we before explained it) is to be understood to be that Antichthon, or Anti-hemisphere which the Ancients opposed to ours.

Another sett of Authors, that interpret the Flaming Swordthat guarded Paradiseto be the Torrid Zone, do plainly intimate, that Paradisein their opinion lay beyond the Torrid Zone, or in the Anti-hemisphere; And thus Tertullianinterprets the Flaming Sword, and in such words as fully confirm our sence: Paradise, He says, by the Torrid Zone, as by a wall of Fire, was severed from the communication and knowledge of our World. It lay then on the other side of this Zone. And St. Cyprian, or the ancient Author that passeth under his name, in his Comment upon Genesis, expresseth himself to the same effect; so also St. Austinand Isidore Hispalensisare thought to interpret it: And Aquinas, who makes Paradiseinaccessible, gives this reason for it, Propter vehementiam æstûs in locis intermediis ex propinquitate Solis, & hoc significatur per Flammeum Gladium: Because of that vehement heat in the parts betwixt us and that, arising from the nearness of the Sun, and this is signified by the Flaming Sword. And this interpretation of the Flaming Swordreceives a remarkable force and Emphasis from our Theory and description of the Primæval Earth, for there the Torrid Zone was as a wall of Fire indeed, or a Region of flame which none could pass or subsist in, no more than in a Furnace.

There is another form of expression amongst the Ancients concerning Paradise, which, if deciphered, is of the same force and signification with this we have already instanced in; They say sometimes, Paradise was beyond the Ocean, or that the Rivers of Paradisecame from beyond the Ocean. This is of the same import with the former Head, and points still at the other Hemisphere; for, as we noted before, some of them fixt their Antichthonand Antichthonesbeyond the Ocean; that is, since there was an Ocean, Since the form of the Earth was changed, and the Torrid Zone become habitable, and consequently could not be a boundary or separation betwixt the two Worlds. Wherefore, as some run still upon the old division by the Torrid Zone, others took the new division by the Ocean. Which Ocean they supposed to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks; as may be seen in ancient Authors, Geminus, Herodotus, Cicero de Republicâ, and Clemens Romanus, whom we cited before. St. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition, when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes, or Antichthones; and Macrobius, I remember, makes it an Argument of Providence, that the Sun and the Planets, in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks, have still the Ocean under them, that they may be cooled and nourisht by its moisture. They thought the Sea, like a Girdle, went round the Earth, and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions, whereof this was called the Oicouméne, and the other Antichthon.

This being observed, ’tis not material, whether their Notion was true or false, it shows us what their meaning was, and what part of the Earth they designed, when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean; namely, that they meant beyond the Line, in the other Hemisphere, or in the Antichthon; and accordingly, when they say Paradise, or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean, they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited. In Moses Bar Cephaabove mentioned, we find a Chapter upon this subject, Quomodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram? How Mankind past out of that Earth or Continent where Paradisewas, into that where we are?Namely, how they past the Ocean, that lay betwixt them, as the answer there given explains it. And so Ephrem Syrusis cited often in that Treatise, placing Paradisebeyond the Ocean. The Essenesalso, who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Jews, placed Paradise, according to Josephus, beyond the Ocean, under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius, in the Oration of Constantine, being corrected and restored to the true reading, represents Paradise, in like manner, as in another Continent, from whence Adamwas brought, after his transgression, into this. And lastly, there are some Authors, whose testimony and authority may deserve to be considered, not for their own Antiquity, but because they are professedly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions, such as Strabus, Comestor, and the like, who are known to give this account or report of Paradisefrom the Ancients, that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus, Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean.

It is also observable, that many of the Ancients that took Tigris, Euphrates, Nileand Gangesfor the Rivers of Paradise, said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent, are but their Capita secunda, their second Sources, and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradisewas; and thus Hugo de Sancto Victoresays, Sanctos communiter sensisse, that the Holy men of old were generally of that opinion. To this sence also Moses Bar Cephaoften expresseth himself; as also Epiphanius, Procopius Gazeus, and Severianus in Catenâ. Which notion amongst the Ancients, concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground, or under-Sea, from one Continent into another, is to me, I confess, unintelligible, either in the first or second Earth; but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise, that it was not to be sought for in Asiaor in Africk, where those Rivers rise to us, but in some remoter parts of the World, where they supposed their first Sources to be.

This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us, concerning the Seat of Paradise; and the truth is, ’tis but a short and broken account; yet ’tis no wonder it should be so, if we consider, as we noted before, that several of them did not believe Paradiseto be Local and Corporeal; Others that did believe it so, yet did not offer to determine the place of it, but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided; And the rest that did speak to that point, did it commonly both in general terms, and in expressions that were disguised, and needed interpretation; but all these differences and obscurities of expression, you see, when duly stated and expounded, may signifie one and the same thing, and terminate all in this common Conclusion, That Paradisewas without our Continent, according to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity. And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal, if the Ancients had understood Geography better; for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe, that there were Antipodesor Antichthones, as Lactantius, St. Austin, and some others, these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise, because they thought there was no Land, nor any thing habitable ἔξω τ῾ οἰκουμγύης, or besides this Continent. And yet St. Austinwas so cautious, that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Ideaof the Earth, that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise; so on the other hand he had that respect for it, that he would not say any thing to the contrary; therefore being to give his opinion, he says only, Terrestrem esse Paradisum, & locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum: That it is somewhere upon the Earth, but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men.

And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason, why the doctrine of Paradisewas so broken and obscure, so another reason why it is much more so at present is, because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subject, are lost; Ephrem Syrus, who lived in the Fourth Century, writ a Commentary in Genesin sive de Ortu rerum, concerning the Origin of the Earth; and by those remains that are cited from it, we have reason to believe, that it contained many things remarkable concerning the first Earth, and concerning Paradise, Tertullianalso writ a Book de Paradiso, which is wholly lost; and we see to what effect it would have been, by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword, and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise; which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another. The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject, at least of those that writ of it literally, is Moses Bar Cepha, a SyrianBishop, who lived about seven hundred years since, and his Book is translated into Latin, by that Learned and Judicious man, Andreas Masius. Bar Cephawrites upon the same Views of Paradisethat we have here presented, that it was beyond the Ocean, in another tract of Land, or another Continent from that which we inhabit: As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Chapters. But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth; for he seems to have fansied the Earth plain, (not only as opposed to rough and Mountainous, for so it was plain; but as opposed to Spherical) and the Ocean to have divided it in two parts, an Interiour, and an Exteriour, and in that Exteriour part was Paradise. Such allowances must often be made for Geographical mistakes, in examining and understanding the writings of the Ancients. The rest of the Syrian Fathers, as well as Ephremand Bar Cepha, incline to the same doctrine of Paradise, and seem to have retained more of the ancient Notions concerning it, than the Greekand LatinFathers have; and yet there is in all some fragments of this doctrine, and but fragments in the best.

We might add in that last place, that as the most ancient Treatises concerning Paradiseare lost, so also the ancient Glossesand Catenæupon Scripture, where we might have found the Traditions and Opinions of the Ancients upon this subject, are many of them either lost or unpublisht; And upon this consideration we did not think it improper to cite some Authors of small Antiquity, but such as have transcribed several things out of ancient Manuscript-glosses into their Commentaries: They living however before Printing was invented, or Learning well restored, and before the Reformation. I add that also before the Reformation, for since that time the Protestant Authors having lessened the authority of Traditions, the Pontificial Doctors content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful or necessary, left by multiplying others that were but matter of curiosity, they should bring the first into question, and render the whole doctrine of Traditions more dubious and exceptionable; And upon this account, there are some Authors that writ an Age or two before the Reformation, that have with more freedom told us the Tenets and Traditions of the Ancients in these Speculations, that are but collateral to Religion, than any have done since. And I must confess, I am apt to think that what remains concerning the doctrine of Paradise, and the Primæval Earth, is in a good measure Traditional; for one may observe, that those that treat upon these subjects, quote the true Opinions, and tell you some of the Ancients held so and so, as That Paradisewas in another Earth, or higher than this Earth, That there were no Mountains before the Flood, nor any Rain, and such like: yet they do not name those ancient Authors that held these Opinions; which makes me apt to believe, either that they were conveyed by a Traditional communication from one to another, or that there were other Books extant upon those subjects, or other Glosses, than what are now known.

Finally, to conclude this Discourse concerning the Seat of Paradise, we must mind you again upon what Basis it stands. We declared freely, that we could not by our Theory alone determine the particular place of it, only by that we are assured that it was in the Primæval Earth, and not in the present; but in what Region, or in whether Hemisphere of that Earth it was seated, we cannot define from Speculation only. ’Tis true, if we hold fast to that Scripture-conclusion, That all Mankind rise from one Head, and from one and the same Stock and Lineage, (which doth not seem to be according to the sentiments of the Heathens) we must suppose they were born in one Hemisphere, and after some time translated into the other, or a Colony of them; But this still doth not determine, in whether of the two they begun, and were first seated before their translation; and I am apt to think that depended rather, as we noted before, upon the Divine pleasure, and the train of affairs that was to succeed, than upon Natural causes and differences. Some of the Ancients, I know, made both the Soil and the Stars more noble in the Southern Hemisphere, than in ours, but I do not see any proof or warrant for it; wherefore laying aside all natural Topicks, we are willing, in this particular, to refer our selves wholly to the report and majority of Votes amongst the Ancients; who yet do not seem to me to lay much stress upon the notion of a particular and topical Paradise, and therefore use general and remote expressions concerning it. And finding no place for it in this Continent, they are willing to quit their hands of it, by placing it in a Region some-where far off, and inaccessible. This, together with the old Tradition, that Paradise was in another Earth, seems to me to give an account of most of their Opinions concerning the Seat of Paradise.

Footnotes

185:1 Οχουμένη.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER VI

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

WE have now, in a good measure, finisht our description of the first and Ante-diluvian Earth; And as Travellers, when they see strange Countries, make it part of their pleasure and imEvidencement, to compare them with their own, to observe the differences, and wherein they excel, or come short of one another: So it will not be unpleasant, nor unuseful, it may be, having made a discovery, not of a new Country, but of a new World, and travelled it over in our thoughts and fancy, now to sit down and compare it with our own: And ’twill be no hard task, from the general differences which we have taken notice of already, to observe what lesser would arise, and what the whole face of Nature would be.

’Tis also one fruit of travelling, that by seeing variety of places and people, of humours, fashions, and forms of living, it frees us, by degrees, from that pedantry and littleness of Spirit, whereby we are apt to censure every thing for absurd and ridiculous, that is not according to our own way, and the mode of our own Country; But if instead of crossing the Seas, we could waft our selves over to our neighbouring Planets, we should meet with such varieties there, both in Nature and Mankind, as would very much enlarge our thoughts and Souls, and help to cure those diseases of little minds, that make them troublesome to others, as well as uneasie to themselves.

But seeing our heavy Bodies are not made for such Voyages, the best and greatest thing we can do in this kind, is to make a Survey and reflection upon the Ante-diluvian Earth, which in some sence was another World from this, and it may be, as different as some two Planets are from one another. We have declared already the general grounds upon which we must proceed, and must now trace the consequences of them, and drive them down into particulars, which will show us in most things, wherein that Earth, or that World, differed from the present. The form of that Earth, and its situation to the Sun, were two of its most fundamental differences from ours; As to the form of it, ’twas all one smooth Continent, one continued surface of earth, without any Sea, any Mountains, or Rocks; any Holes, Dens or Caverns: And the situation of it to the Sun was such as made a perpetual Æquinox. These two joyned together, lay the foundation of a new Astronomy, Meteorology, Hydrography and Geography; such as were proper and peculiar to that World. The Earth by this means having its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Ecliptick, the Heavens would appear in another posture: And their diurnal motion, which is imputed to the Primum Mobile, and supposed to be upon the Poles of the Æquator, would then be upon the same Poles with the second and Periodical motions of the Orbs and Planets, namely, upon the Poles of the Ecliptick; by which means the Phænomenaof the Heavens would be more simple and regular, and much of that intangledness and perplexity, which we find now in Astronomy, would be taken away. Whether the Sun and the Moon would suffer any Eclipses then, cannot well be determined, unless one knew what the course of the Moon was at that time, or whether she was then come into our neighbourhood: Her presence seems to have been less needful when there were no long Winter-nights, nor the great Pool of the Sea to move or govern.

As for the Regions of the Air and the Meteors, we have in the preceding Chapter set down what the state of them would be, and in how much a better order, and more peaceable, that Kingdom was, till the Earth was broken and displaced, and the course of Nature chang'd: Nothing violent, nothing frightful, nothing troublesome or incommodious to Mankind, came from above, but the countenance of the Heavens was always smooth and serene. I have often thought it a very desirable piece of power, if a man could but command a fair day, when he had occasion for it, for himself, or for his friends; ’tis more than the greatest Prince or Potentate upon Earth can do; yet they never wanted one in that World, nor ever see a foul one. Besides, they had constant breezes from the motion of the Earth, and the course of the Vapours, which cooled the open Plains, and made the weather temperate, as well as fair. But we have spoken enough in other places upon this subject of the Air and the Heavens, Let us now descend to the Earth.

The Earth was divided into two Hemispheres, separated by the Torrid Zone, which at that time was uninhabitable, and utterly unpassable; so as the two Hemispheres made two distinct Worlds, which, so far as we can judge, had no manner of commerce or communication one with another. The Southern Hemisphere the Ancients called Antichthon, the Opposite Earth, or the Other World. And this name and notion remained long after the reason of it had ceast. Just as the Torrid Zone was generally accounted uninhabitable by the Ancients, even in their time, because it really had been so once, and the Tradition remained uncorrected, when the causes were taken away; namely, when the Earth had changed its posture to the Sun after the Deluge.

This may be lookt upon as the first division of that Primæval Earth, into two Hemispheres, naturally severed and disunited: But it was also divided into five Zones, two Frigid, two Temperate, and the Torrid betwixt them. And this distinction of the Globe into five Zones, I think, did properly belong to that Original Earth, and Primitive Geography, and improperly, and by translation only, to the present. For all the Zones of our Earth are habitable, and their distinctions are in a manner but imaginary, not fixt by Nature; whereas in that Earth where the Rivers failed, and the Regions became uninhabitable, by reason of driness and heat, there begun the Torrid Zone; and where the Regions became uninhabitable, by reason of cold and moisture, there begun the Frigid Zone; and these being determined, they became bounds on either side to the Temperate. But all this was altered when the posture of the Earth was changed; and changed for that very purpose, as some of the Ancients have said, That the uninhabitable parts of the Earth might become habitable. Yet though there was so much of the first Earth uninhabitable, there remained as much to be inhabited as we have now; for the Sea, since the breaking up of the Abysse, hath taken away half of the Earth from us, a great part whereof was to them good Land. Besides, we are not to suppose, that the Torrid Zone was of that extent we make it now, twenty three degrees and more on either side of the Æquator; these bounds are set only by the Tropicks, and the Tropicks by the obliquity of the course of the Sun, or of the posture of the Earth, which was not in that World. Where the Rivers stopt, there the Torrid Zone would begin, but the Sun was directly perpendicular to no part of it, but the middle.

How the Rivers flowed in the first Earth we have before explained sufficiently, and what parts the Rivers did not reach, were turned into Sands and Desarts by the heat of the Sun; for I cannot easily imagine, that the Sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first, immediately and from the beginning of the World; from what causes should that be, and to what purpose? But in those Tracts of the Earth that were not refresht with Rivers and moisture, which cement the parts, the ground would moulder and crumble into little pieces, and then those pieces by the heat of the Sun were baked into Stone. And this would come to pass chiefly in the hot and scorched Regions of the Earth, though it might happen sometimes where there was not that extremity of heat, if by any chance a place wanted Rivers and Water to keep the Earth in due temper; but those Sands would not be so early or ancient as the other. As for greater loose Stones, and rough Pebbles, there were none in that Earth; Deucalionand Pyrrha, when the Deluge was over, found new-made Stones to cast behind their backs; the bones of their mother Earth, which then were broken in pieces, in that great ruine.

As for Plants and Trees, we cannot imagine but that they must needs abound in the Primitive Earth, seeing it was so well watered, and had a soil so fruitful; A new unlaboured soil, replenisht with the Seeds of all Vegetables; and a warm Sun that would call upon Nature early for her First-fruits, to be offered up at the beginning of her course. Nature had a wild luxuriancy at first, which humane industry by degrees gave form and order to; The Waters Howed with a constant and gentle Current, and were easily led which way the Inhabitants had a mind, for their use, or for their pleasure; and shady Trees, which grow best in moist and warm Countries, graced the Banks of their Rivers or Canals. But that which was the beauty and crown of all, was their perpetual Spring, the Fields always green, the Flowers always fresh, and the Trees always covered with Leaves and Fruit: But we have occasionally spoken of these things in several places, and may do again hereafter, and therefore need not inlarge upon them here.

As for Subterraneous things, Metals and Minerals, I believe they had none in the first Earth; and the happier they; no Gold, nor Silver, nor courser Metals. The use of these is either imaginary, or in such works, as, by the constitution of their World, they had little occasion for. And Minerals are either for Medicine, which they had no need of further than Herbs; or for Materials to certain Arts, which were not then in use, or were supplied by other ways. These Subterraneous things, Metals and metallick Minerals, are Factitious, not Original bodies, coeval with the Earth; but are made in process of time, after long preparations and concoctions, by the action of the Sun within the bowels of the Earth. And if the Stamina or principles of them rise from the lower Regions that lie under the Abysse, as I am apt to think they do, it doth not seem probable, that they could be drawn through such a mass of Waters, or that the heat of the Sun could on a sudden penetrate so deep, and be able to loosen them, and raise them into the exterior Earth. And as the first Age of the World was called Golden, though it knew not what Gold was; so the following Ages had their names from several Metals, which lay then asleep in the dark and deep womb of Nature, and see not the Sun till many Years and Ages afterwards.

Having run through the several Regions of Nature, from top to bottom, from the Heavens to the lower parts of the Earth, and made some observations upon their order in the Ante-diluvian World; Let us now look upon Man and other living Creatures, that make the Superiour and Animate part of Nature. We have observed, and sufficiently spoken to that difference betwixt the men of the old World, and those of the present, in point of Longævity, and given the reasons of it; but we must not imagine, that this long life was peculiar to Man, all other Animals had their share of it, and were in their proportion longer-lived than they are now. Nay, not only Animals, but also Vegetables, and the forms of all living things were far more permanent; The Trees of the Field and of the Forest, in all probability, out-lasted the lives of Men; and I do not know but the first Groves of Pines and Cedars that grew out of the Earth, or that were planted in the Garden of God, might be standing when the Deluge came, and see, from first to last, the entire course and period of a World.

We might add here, with St. Austin, another observation, both concerning Men and other lying Creatures in the first World, that They were greater, as well as longer-lived, than they are at present. This seems to be a very reasonable conjecture, for the state of every thing that hath life, is divided into the time of its growth, its consistency, and its decay; and when the whole duration is longer, every one of these parts, though not always in like proportions, will be longer. We must suppose then, that the growth both in Men and other Animals lasted longer in that World than it doth now, and consequently carried their Bodies both to a greater height and bulk. And in like manner, their Trees would be both taller, and every way bigger than ours; neither were they in any danger there to be blown down by Winds and Storms, or struck with Thunder, though they had been as high as the ÆgyptianPyramids; and whatsoever their height was, if they had Roots and Trunks proportionable, and were streight and well poised, they would stand firm, and with a greater majesty. The Fowls of Heaven making their Nests in their Boughs, and under their shadow the Beasts of the Field bringing forth their Young. When things are fairly possible in their causes, and possible in several degrees, higher or lower, ’tis weakness of Spirit in us, to think there is nothing in Nature, but in that one way, or in that one degree, that we are used to. And whosoever believes those accounts given us, both by the Ancients 1 and Moderns, 2 of the IndianTrees, will not think it strange that those of the first Earth, should much exceed any that we now see in this World. That Allegorical description of the glory of Assyriain Ezekiel(Chap. 31) by allusion to Trees, and particularly to the Trees of Paradise, was chiefly for the greatness and stateliness of them; and there is all fairness of reason to believe, that in that first Earth, both the Birds of the Air, and the Beasts of the Field, and the Trees, and their Fruit, were all, in their several kinds, more large and goodly than Nature produces any now.

So much in short concerning the Natural World, Inanimate or Animate; We should now take a prospect of the Moral World of that time, or of the Civil and Artificial World; what the order and Oeconomy of these was, what the manner of living, and how the Scenes of humane life were different from ours at present. The Ancients, especially the Poets, in their description of the Golden Age, exhibit to us an Order of things, and a Form of life, very remote from any thing we see in our days; but they are not to be trusted in all particulars, many times they exaggerate matters on purpose, that they may seem more strange, or more great, and by that means move and please us more. A Moralor PhilosophickHistory of the World well writ, would certainly be a very useful work, to observe and relate how the Scenes of Humane life have changed in several Ages, the Modes and Forms of living, in what simplicity Men begun at first, and by what degrees they came out of that way, by luxury, ambition, imEvidencement, or changes in Nature; then what new forms and modifications were superadded by the invention of Arts, what by Religion, what by Superstition. This would be a view of things more instructive, and more satisfactory, than to know what Kings Reigned in such an Age, and what Battles were fought; which common History teacheth, and teacheth little more. Such affairs are but the little underplots in the Tragi-comedy of the World; the main design is of another nature, and of far greater extent and consequence. But to return to the subject;

As the Animate World depends upon the Inanimate, so the Civil World depends upon them both, and takes its measures from them: Nature is the foundation still, and the affairs of Mankind are a superstructure that will be always proportioned to it. There fore we must look back upon the model or picture of their natural World, which we have drawn before, to make our conjectures or judgment of the Civil and Artificial that were to accompany it. We observed from their perpetual Æquinox, and the smoothness of the Earth, that the Air would be always calm, and the Heavens fair, no cold or violent Winds, Rains, or Storms, no extremity of weather in any kind, and therefore they would need little protection from the injuries of the Air in that state; whereas now one great part of the affairs of life, is to preserve our selves from those inconveniences, by building and cloathing. How many Hands, and how many Trades are imployed about these two things, which then were in a manner needless, or at least in such plainness and simplicity, that every man might be his own workman. Tents and Bowers would keep them from all incommodities of the Air and weather, better than Stone-walls, and strong Roofs defend us now; and men are apt to take the easiest ways of living, till necessity or vice put them upon others that are more laborious, and more artificial. We also observed and Evidenced, that they had no Sea in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian World, which makes a vast difference ’twixt us and them; This takes up half of our Globe, and a good part of Mankind is busied with Sea-affairs and Navigation. They had little need of Merchandizing then, Nature supplied them at home with all necessaries, which were few, and they were not so greedy of superfluities as we are. We may add to these what concerned their Food and Diet; Antiquity doth generally suppose that men were not Carnivorous in those Ages of the World, or did not feed upon Flesh, but only upon Fruit and Herbs. And this seems to be plainly confirmed by Scripture; for after the Deluge God Almighty gives Noahand his Posterity a Licence to eat Flesh, (Gen. 9. 2, 3.) Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. Whereas before in the new-made Earth God had prescribed them Herbs and Fruit for their Diet, Gen. 1. 29. Behold, I have given you every Herb bearing Seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth; and every Tree, in the which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed, to you it shall be for meat. And of this Natural Diet they would be provided to their hands, without further preparation, as the Birds and the Beasts are.

Upon these general grounds we may infer and conclude, that the Civil World then, as well as the Natural, had a very different face and aspect from what it hath now; for of these Heads, Food and Cloathing, Building and Traffick, with that train of Arts, Trades and Manufactures that attend them, the Civil order of things is in a great measure constituted and compounded: These make the business of life, the several occupations of Men, the noise and hurry of the World; These fill our Cities, and our Fairs, and our Havens and Ports; Yet all these fine things are but the effects of indigency and necessitousness, and were, for the most part, needless and unknown in that first state of Nature. The Ancients have told us the same things in effect, but telling us them without their grounds, which they themselves did not know, they lookt like Poetical stories, and pleasant fictions, and with most men past for no better. We have shewn them in another light, with their Reasons and Causes, deduced from the state of the natural World, which is the Basis upon which they stand; and this doth not only give them a just and full credibility, but also lays a foundation for after-thoughts, and further deductions, when they meet with minds disposed to pursue Speculations of this Nature.

As for Laws, Government, natural Religion, Military and Judicial affairs, with all their Equipage, which make an higher order of things in the Civil and Moral World, to calculate these upon the grounds given, would be more difficult, and more uncertain; neither do they at all belong to the present Theory. But from what we have already observed, we may be able to make a better judgment of those Traditional accounts which the Ancients have left us concerning these things, in the early Ages of the World, and the Primitive state of Nature. No doubt in these, as in all other particulars, there was a great easiness and simplicity in comparison of what is now, we are in a more pompous, forced, and artificial method, which partly the change of Nature, and partly the Vices and Vanities of men have introduced and establisht. But these things, with many more, ought to be the subject of a Philosophick Historyof the World, which we mentioned before.

This is a short and general Scheme of the Primæval World, compared with the Modern; yet these things did not equally run through all the Parts and Ages of it, there was a declension and degeneracy, both Natural and Moral, by degrees, and especially towards the latter end; but the principal form of Nature remaining till the Deluge and the dissolution of that Heavens and Earth, till then also this Civil frame of things would stand in a great measure. And though such a state of Nature, and of Mankind, when ’tis proposed crudely, and without its grounds, appear fabulous or imaginary, yet ’tis really in it self a state, not only possible, but more easie and natural, than what the World is in at present. And if one of the old Ante-diluvian Patriarchs should rise from the dead, he would be more surprised to see our World in that posture it is, than we can be by the story and description of his. As an Indianhath more reason to wonder at the Europeanmodes, than we have to wonder at their plain manner of living. ’Tis we that have left the tract of Nature, that are wrought and screwed up into artifices, that have disguised our selves; and ’tis in our World that the Scenes are changed, and become more strange and Fantastical.

I will conclude this Discourse with an easie remark, and without any particular Application of it. ’Tis a strange power that custom hath upon weak and little Spirits; whose thoughts reach no further than their Senses; and what they have seen and been used to, they make the standard and measure of Nature, of Reason, and of all Decorum. Neither are there any sort of men more positive and tenacious of their petty opinions, than they are; nor more censorious, even to bitterness and malice. And ’tis generally so, that those that have the least evidence for the truth of their beloved opinions, are most peevish and impatient in the defence of them. This sort of men are the last that will be made wise men, if ever they be; for they have the worst of diseases that accompany ignorance, and do not so much as know themselves to be sick.

Footnotes

178:1 Plin. li. 7, c. 2. Strab. l. 17.
178:2 Hort. Malabr.vol. 3.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER V

Concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth: What the state of the Regions of the Air was then, and how all Waters proceeded from them; how the Rivers arose, what was their course, and how they ended. Several things in Sacred Writ that confirm this Hydrography of the first Earth; especially the Origin of the Rainbow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fig. 1

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

Fig. 2

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

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

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

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

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

Fig. 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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