_All Evasions answered; That there was no new Creation of Waters at
the Deluge: And that it was not Particular or National, but extended
throughout the whole Earth. A Prelude and Preparation to the true
Account and Explication of it: The Method of the first Book._
THOUGH in the preceding Chapter we may seem to have given a fair Trial
to the common Opinion concerning the State of the Deluge, and might now
proceed to Sentence of Condemnation: Yet having heard of another Plea,
which some have us’d in its Behalf, and another way found out by
recourse to the Supream Power, to supply all Defects, and to make the
whole matter intelligible, we will proceed no farther ’till that be
consider’d; being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offer’d, in
that or any other way, for resolving that great Difficulty which we have
proposed, concerning _the Quantity of Water requisite for such a
Deluge_. And to this they say in short, that _God Almighty created
Waters on purpose to make the Deluge, and then annihilated them again
when the Deluge was to cease_; and this, in a few Words, is the whole
account of the Business. This is to cut the Knot when we cannot loose
it; they shew us the naked Arm of Omnipotency; such Arguments as these
come like Lightning, one doth not know what Armour to put on against
them, for they pierce the more, the more they are resisted: We will not
therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn, but by a
soft Answer deaden their Force by degrees.
And I desire to mind those Persons, in the first Place, of what St.
_Austin_ hath said upon a like Occasion, speaking concerning those that
disproved the Opinion of Waters above the Heavens (which we mention’d
before) by natural Reasons. “We are not, saith he, to refute those
Persons, by saying, that according to the Omnipotence of God, to whom
all things, are possible, we ought to believe there are Waters there, as
heavy as we know and feel them here below; for our Business is now to
enquire according to his Scripture, how God hath constituted the Nature
of Things, and not what he could do or work in these Things by a Miracle
of Omnipotency.” I desire them to apply this to the present Argument for
the first Answer.
_Secondly_, LET them consider, that _Moses_ hath assign’d Causes of the
Deluge; _Forty Days Rain, and the Disruption of the Abyss_; and speaks
nothing of a new Creation of Water upon that Occasion. Those were Causes
in Nature which Providence had then dispos’d for this extraordinary
Effect, and those the Divine Historian refers us to, and not to any
Productions out of nothing. Besides, _Moses_ makes the Deluge increase
by degrees with the Rain, and accordingly makes it cease by degrees, and
that the Waters _going and returning_ as the Waves and great Commotions
of the Sea use to do, retir’d leisurely from the Face of the Earth, and
settled at length in their Channels. Now this manner of the Beginning or
Ceasing of the Deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous
Actions of Creation and Annihilation.
_Thirdly_, LET them consider, that Saint _Peter_ hath also assign’d
_Causes_ of the Deluge, _2 Pet. 3. 6._ namely the particular
Constitution of the Earth and Heavens before the Flood; by _reason
whereof_, he saith, _the World that was then perish’d in a Deluge of
Water_; and not by reason of a new Creation of Water. His Words are
these: “The Heavens and the Earth were of old, consisting of Water, and
by Water; whereby, or by reason whereof, the World that then was, being
overflowed with Water, perished.”
_Fourthly_, They are to consider, that as we are not rashly to have
recourse to the Divine Omnipotence upon any Account, so especially not
for new Creations; and least of all for the Creation of new Matter. The
Matter of the Universe was created many Ages before the Flood, and the
Universe being full, if any more was created, then there must be as much
annihilated at the same time to make Room for it; for Bodies cannot
penetrate one another’s Dimensions, nor be two or more within one and
the same Space. Then, on the other Hand, when the Deluge ceas’d, and
these Waters were annihilated, so much other Matter must be created
again to take up their Places. And methinks they make very bold with the
Deity, when they make him do and undo, go forward and backwards by such
countermarches and retractions, as we do not willingly impute to the
Wisdom of God Almighty.
LASTLY, I shall not think my Labour lost, if it be but acknowledg’d,
that we have so far clear’d the Way in this Controversy, as to have
brought it to this Issue; that either there must be new Waters created
on purpose to make a Deluge, or there could be no Deluge as it is
vulgarly explained; there not being Water sufficient in Nature to make a
Deluge of that kind. This, I say, is a great step, and, I think, will
satisfy all Parties, at least, all that are considerable; for those that
have recourse to a new Creation of Waters, are of two sorts, either such
as do it out of Laziness, and Ignorance, or such as do it out of
Necessity, seeing they cannot be had otherwise; as for the first, they
are not to be valued or gratified; and as for the second, I shall do a
thing very acceptable to them, if I free them and the Argument from that
Necessity; and shew a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible, and
accountable without the Creation of new Waters; which is the Design of
this Treatise. For we do not tie this Knot with an Intention to puzzle
and perplex the Argument finally with it; but the harder it is ty’d, we
shall feel the Pleasure more sensibly when we come to loose it.
IT may be, when they are beaten from this new Creation of Water, they
will say, the Element of Air was chang’d into Water, and that was the
great Store-house for the Deluge. Forty Days Rain we allow, as _Moses_
does, but if they suppose any other Transelementation, it neither agrees
with _Moses_’s Philosophy, nor St. _Peter_’s; for then the _Opening of
the Abyss_ was needless, and the Form and Constitution of the
Antediluvian _Heavens_ and _Earth_, which St. _Peter_ refers the Deluge
to, bore no part in the Work; it might have been made, in that way,
indifferently under any Heavens, or Earth. Besides, they offend against
St. _Austin_’s Rule in this Method too; for I look upon it as no less a
Miracle to turn Air into Water, than to turn Water into Wine. _Air_, I
say: For Vapours indeed are but Water made volatile; but pure Air is a
Body of another Species, and cannot by any Compression or Condensation,
so far as is yet known, be chang’d into Water. And lastly, if the whole
Atmosphere was turn’d into Water, ’tis very probable it would make no
more than 34 Foot or thereabouts; for so much Air or Vapours as is of
the same weight with any certain Quantity of Water, ’tis likely, if it
was chang’d into Water, would also be of the same Bulk with it, or not
much more: Now according to the Doctrine of the Gravitation of the
Atmosphere, ’tis found, that 34 Foot of Water does counterballance a
proportionable Cylinder of Air reaching to the top of the Atmosphere;
and consequently, if the whole Atmosphere was converted into Water, it
would make no more than eleven or twelve Yards Water about the Earth;
which the Cavities of the Earth would be able in a good measure to suck
up, at least this is very inconsiderable as to our eight Oceans. And if
you would change the higher Regions into Water too, what must supply the
Place of that Air which you transform into Water, and bring down upon
the Earth? There would be little left but Fire and Æther betwixt us and
the Moon, and I am afraid it would endanger to suck down the Moon too
after it. In a Word, such an Explication as this is both purely
imaginary, and also very operose, and would affect a great part of the
Universe; and after all, they would be as hard put to it to get rid of
this Water, when the Deluge was to cease, as they were at first to
procure it.
HAVING now examin’d and answered all the Pleas, from first to last, for
the vulgar Deluge, or the old way of explaining it, we should proceed
immediately to propose another Method, and another Ground for an
universal Deluge, were it not that an Opinion hath been started by some
of late, that would in effect supplant both these Methods, old and new,
and take away in a great measure the Subject of the Question. Some
Modern Authors observing what straits they have been put to in all Ages,
to find out Water enough for _Noah_’s Flood, have ventur’d upon an
Expedient more brisk and bold than any of the Ancients durst venture
upon: They say, _Noah_’s Flood was not Universal, but a National
Inundation, confin’d to _Judea_, and those Countries thereabouts; and
consequently, there would not be so much Water necessary for the Cause
of it, as we have prov’d to be necessary for an Universal Deluge of that
kind. Their Inference is very true, they have avoided that Rock, but
they run upon another no less dangerous; to avoid an Objection from
Reason, they deny matter of Fact, and such matter of Fact as is well
attested by History, both Sacred and Prophane. I believe the Authors
that set up this Opinion were not themselves satisfy’d with it; but
seeing insuperable Difficulties in the old Way, they are the more
excusable in chusing, as they thought, of two Evils the less.
BUT the Choice, methinks, is as bad on this Hand, if all things be
considered; _Moses_ represents the Flood of _Noah_ as an Overthrow and
Destruction of the whole Earth; and who can imagine, that in sixteen or
seventeen hundred Years time, (taking the lower Chronology) that the
Earth had then stood, Mankind should be propagated no farther than
_Judea_, or some neighbouring Countries thereabouts? After the Flood,
when the World was renew’d again by eight Persons, they had made a far
greater Progress in _Asia_, _Europe_, and _Africa_, within the same
space of Years, and yet ’tis likely they were more fruitful in the first
Ages of the World, than after the Flood; and they liv’d six, seven,
eight, nine hundred Years a Piece, getting Sons and Daughters. Which
Longevity of the first Inhabitants of the Earth seems to have been
providentially design’d for the quicker Multiplication and Propagation
of Mankind; and Mankind thereby would become so numerous within sixteen
hundred Years, that there seems to me to be a greater Difficulty from
the Multitude of the People that would be before the Flood, than from
the want of People: For if we allow the first Couple at the End of one
hundred Years, or of the first Century, to have left ten Pair of
Breeders, which is no hard Supposition, there would arise from these, in
fifteen hundred Years, a greater Number than the Earth was capable of;
allowing every Pair to multiply in the same decuple Proportion the first
Pair did. But because this would rise far beyond the Capacities of this
Earth, let us suppose them to increase, in the following Centuries, in a
quintuple Proportion only, or, if you will, only in a quadruple; and
then the Table of the Multiplication of Mankind, from the Creation to
the Flood, would stand thus;
_Century_
1— 10
2— 40
3— 160
4— 640
5— 2560
6— 10240
7— 40960
8— 163840
9— 655360
10— 2621440
11— 10485760
12— 41943040
13— 167772160
14— 671088640
15— 2684354560
16— 10737418240
This Product is too excessive high, if compar’d with the present number
of Men upon the Face of the Earth, which, I think, is commonly estimated
to be betwixt three and four hundred Millions; and yet this Proportion
of their Increase seems to be low enough, if we take one Proportion for
all the Centuries; for, in reality, the same Measure cannot run equally
through all the Ages, but we have taken this as moderate and reasonable
betwixt the highest and the lowest; but if we had taken only a tripple
Proportion, it would have been sufficient (all things consider’d) for
the Purpose. There are several other ways of computing this Number, and
some more particular and exact than this is, but which way soever you
try, you shall find the Product great enough for the Extent of this
Earth; and if you follow the Septuagint Chronology, it will still be far
higher. I have met with three or four different Calculations, in several
Authors, of the Number of Mankind before the Flood, and never met with
any yet, but what exceeded the Number of the People that are at present
upon the Face of the Earth. So as it seems to me a very groundless and
forc’d Conceit to imagine, that _Judea_ only, and some Parts about it in
_Asia_, were stor’d with People when the Deluge was brought upon the old
World. Besides, if the Deluge was confin’d to those Countries, I do not
see but the Borderers might have escap’d, shifting a little into the
adjoining Places where the Deluge did not reach. But especially what
needed so much ado to build an Ark to save _Noah_ and his Family, if he
might have sav’d himself and them, only by retiring into some
neighbouring Country; as _Lot_ and his Family sav’d themselves, by
withdrawing from _Sodom_, when the City was to be destroyed? Had not
this been a far easier thing, and more compendious, than the great
Preparations he made of a large Vessel, with Rooms, for the Reception
and Accommodation of Beasts and Birds? And now I mention Birds, why
could not they at least have flown into the next dry Country? They might
have pearch’d upon the Trees, and the tops of the Mountains by the way
to have rested themselves if they were weary, for the Waters did not all
of a sudden rise to the Mountains tops.
I cannot but look upon the Deluge as a much more considerable thing than
these Authors wou’d represent it, and as a kind of Dissolution of
Nature; _Moses_ calls it a destroying of the _Earth_, as well as of
Mankind, _Gen. 6. 13._ And the Bow was set in the Cloud to seal the
Covenant, _that he would destroy the Earth no more_, _Gen. 9. 11._ or
that there would be no more a Flood _to destroy the Earth_. And ’tis
said, _Verse 13._ That the Covenant was made between God and the Earth,
or this Frame of Nature, that it should perish no more by Water. And the
Rain-Bow, which was a Token and Pledge of this Covenant, appears not
only in _Judea_, or some other _Asiatick_ Provinces, but to all the
Regions of the Earth, who had an equal Share and Concern in it. _Moses_
saith also, the Fountains of the great _Abyss_ were burst asunder to
make the Deluge; and what means this _Abyss_, and the bursting of it, if
restrain’d to _Judea_, or some adjacent Countries? What Appearance is
there of this Disruption _there_, more than in other Places?
Furthermore, St. _Peter_ plainly implies, _2 Epist. c. 5. 6._ That the
Antediluvian Heavens and Earth perished in the Deluge; and opposeth the
present Earth and Heavens to them, as different and of another
Constitution; and saith, that these shall perish by Fire, as the other
perished by Water. So he compares the conflagration with the Deluge, as
two general Dissolutions of Nature, and one may as well say, that the
Conflagration shall be only National, and but two or three Countries
burnt in that last Fire, as to say, that the Deluge was so. I confess
that Discourse of St. _Peter_, concerning the several States of the
World, would sufficiently convince me, if there was nothing else, That
the Deluge was not a particular, or national Inundation, but a _mundane_
Change, that extended to the whole Earth, and both to the (lower)
Heavens and Earth.
ALL Antiquity, we know, hath spoke of these mundane Revolutions or
Periods, that the World should be successively destroyed by Water and
Fire; and I do not doubt, but that this Deluge of _Noah_’s, which
_Moses_ describes, was the first and leading Instance of this kind; and
accordingly we see that after this Period, and after the Flood, the
Blessing for Multiplication, and for replenishing the Earth with
Inhabitants, was as solemnly pronounc’d by God Almighty, as at the first
Creation of Man, _Gen. 9. 1._ with _Gen. 1. 28._ These Considerations, I
think, might be sufficient to give us Assurance from Divine Writ of the
Universality of the Deluge; and yet _Moses_ affords us another Argument
as demonstrative as any, when in the History of the Deluge, he saith,
_Gen. 7. 19._ _The Waters exceedingly prevail’d upon the Earth, and all
the high Hills that were under the whole Heavens were covered._ All the
high Hills, he saith, _under the whole Heavens_, then quite round the
Earth; and if the Mountains were covered quite round the Earth, sure the
Plains could not scape. But to argue with them upon their own Grounds:
Let us suppose only the _Asiatick_ and _Armenian_ Mountains covered with
these Waters, this they cannot deny; then unless there was a Miracle to
keep these Waters upon Heaps, they would flow throughout the Earth; for
these Mountains are high enough to make them fall every way, and make
them join with our Seas that environ the Continent. We cannot imagine
Hills and Mountains of Water to have hung about _Judea_, as if they were
congeal’d, or a Mass of Water to have stood upon the middle of the Earth
like one great Drop, or a trembling Jelly, and all the Places about it
dry and untouch’d. All liquid Bodies are diffusive; for their Parts
being in Motion have no Tie or Connexion one with another, but glide and
fall off any way, as Gravity and the Air presseth them; so the Surface
of Water doth always conform into a Spherical Convexity with the rest of
the Globe of the Earth, and every part of it falls as near to the Center
as it can; wherefore when these Waters began to rise at first, long
before they cou’d swell to the height of the Mountains, they would
diffuse themselves every way, and thereupon all the Valleys and Plains,
and lower Parts of the Earth would be filled throughout the whole Earth,
before they cou’d rise to the Tops of the Mountains in any Part of it:
And the Sea would be all raised to a considerable height before the
Mountains could be covered. For let us suppose, as they do, that this
Water fell not throughout the whole Earth, but in some particular
Country, and there made first a great Lake; this Lake when it begun to
swell would every way discharge it self by any Descents or Declivities
of the Ground, and these Issues and Derivations being once made and
supply’d with new Waters pushing them forwards, would continue their
Course ’till they arrived at the Sea, just as other Rivers do; for these
would be but so many Rivers rising out of this Lake, and would not be
considerably deeper and higher at the Fountain than in their Progress or
at the Sea, We may as well then expect that the _Leman_ Lake, for
instance, out of which the _Rhone_ runs, should swell to the Tops of the
_Alps_ on the one Hand, and the Mountains of _Switzerland_ and
_Burgundy_ on the other, and then stop, without overflowing the plainer
Countries that lie beyond them; as to suppose that this Diluvian Lake
should rise to the Mountains Tops in one Place, and not diffuse it self
equally into all Countries about, and upon the Surface of the Sea; in
Proportion to its Height and Depth in the Place where it first fell or
stood.
THUS much for Sacred History. The Universality of the Deluge is also
attested by Profane History; for the Fame of it is gone thro’ the Earth,
and there are Records or Traditions concerning it, in all Parts of this
and the new-found World. The _Americans_ do acknowledge and speak of it
in their Continent, as _Acosta_ witnesseth, and _Laet_ in their
Histories of them. _Mart._ The _Chineses_ have the Tradition of it,
which is the farthest part of our Continent; and the nearer and Western
part of _Asia_ is acknowledg’d the proper Seat of it. Not to mention
_Deucalion_’s Deluge in the _European_ Parts, which seems to be the same
under a disguise: So as you may trace the Deluge quite round the Globe
in profane History; and, which is remarkable, every one of these People
have a Tale to tell, some one way, some another, concerning the
Restauration of Mankind; which is an Argument that they thought all
Mankind destroy’d by that Deluge. In the old Dispute between the
_Scythians_ and the _Ægyptians_ for Antiquity, which _Justin_ mentions,
they refer to a former Destruction of the World by Water or Fire, and
argue, whether Nation first rose again, and was original to the other.
So the _Babylonians_, _Assyrians_, _Phœnicians_ and others, mention the
Deluge in their Stories. And we cannot without offering Violence to all
Records and Authority, Divine and Human, deny, that there hath been an
universal Deluge upon the Earth; and if there was an universal Deluge,
no question it was that of _Noah_’s, and that which _Moses_ describ’d,
and that which we treat of at present.
THESE Considerations, I think, are abundantly sufficient to silence that
Opinion, concerning the Limitation and Restriction of the Deluge to a
particular Country or Countries. It ought rather to be look’d upon as an
Evasion indeed, than Opinion, seeing the Authors do not offer any
positive Argument for the Proof of it, but depend only upon that
negative Argument, That an universal Deluge is a Thing unintelligible.
This Stumbling-stone we hope to take away for the future, and that Men
shall not be put to that unhappy Choice, either to deny Matter of Fact
well attested, or admit an Effect, whereof they cannot see any possible
Causes. And so having stated and proposed the whole Difficulty, and
try’d all ways offered by others, and found them ineffectual, let us now
apply our selves by degrees, to untie the Knot.
THE excessive Quantity of Water is the great Difficulty, and the Removal
of it afterwards. Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts, and I
cast about every way, to find an Expedient, or to find some way, whereby
the same Effect might be brought to pass with less Water, and in such a
manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg’d. The
first Thought that came into my Mind upon that Occasion, was concerning
the Form of the Earth, which I imagin’d might possibly at that Time be
different from what it is at present, and come nearer to Plainness and
Equallity in the Surface of it, and so might the more easily be
overflow’d, and the Deluge perform’d with less Water. This Opinion
concerning the Plainness of the first Earth, I also found in Antiquity,
mention’d and refer’d to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries
upon _Genesis_, either upon Occasion of the Deluge, or of that Fountain
which is said, _Gen. 2. 6._ to have watered the Face of the whole Earth:
And a late eminent Person, the Honour of his Profession for Integrity
and Learning, in his Discourse concerning the _Origination of Mankind_,
hath made a like Judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge,
that the Face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now. But yet
upon second Thoughts, I easily see that this alone wou’d not be
sufficient to explain the Deluge, nor to give an Account of the present
Form of the Earth, unequal and mountainous as it is. ’Tis true this
would give a great Advantage to the Waters, and the Rains that fell for
Forty Days together would have a great Power over the Earth, being plain
and smooth; but how would these Waters be dispos’d of when the Deluge
ceas’d? Or how could it ever cease? Besides, what means the Disruption
of the great _Deep_, or the great _Abyss_, or what answers to it upon
this Supposition? This was assuredly of no less Consideration than the
Rains; nay, I believe, the Rains were but preparatory in some measure,
and that the Violence and Consummation of the Deluge depended upon the
Disruption of the great Abyss. Therefore I saw it necessary, to my first
Thought, concerning the Smoothness and Plainness of the Antediluvian
Earth, to add a second, concerning the Disruption and Dissolution of it;
for, as it often happens in Earthquakes, when the exterior Earth is
burst asunder, and a great Flood of Waters issues out, according to the
Quantity and Force of them, an Inundation is made in those Parts, more
or less; so I thought, if that _Abyss_ lay under Ground and round the
Earth, and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in
several Places at once, and as it were a general Dissolution made, we
might suppose that to make a general Deluge, as well as a particular
Dissolution often makes a particular. But I will not anticipate here the
Explication we intend to give of the Universal Deluge in the following
Chapters; only by this previous Intimation we may gather some Hopes, it
may be, that the Matter is not so desperate as the former Representation
might possibly make us fancy it.
GIVE me leave to add farther in this Place, that it hath been observ’d
by several, from the Contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and
Precipices, of the Channel of the Sea, and of Islands, and of
Subterraneous Caverns, that the Surface of the Earth, or the exterior
Region which we inhabit, hath been broke, and the parts of it
dislocated: And one might instance more particularly in several Parcels
of Nature, that retain still the evident Marks of Fraction and Ruin, and
by their present Form and Posture shew, that they have been once in
another State and Situation one to another. We shall have occasion
hereafter to give an Account of these _Phænomena_, from which several
have rightly argu’d, and concluded some general Rupture or Ruin in the
superficial Parts of the Earth. But this Ruin, it is true, they have
imagin’d and explain’d several ways, some thinking that it was made the
_third Day_ after the Foundation of the Earth; when they suppose the
Channel of the Sea to have been form’d, and Mountains and Caverns at the
same time, by a violent Depression of some Parts of the Earth, and an
Extrusion and Elevation of others to make them Room. Others suppose it
to have come not all at once, but by Degrees, at several Times, and in
several Ages, from particular and accidental Causes, as the Earth
falling in upon Fires under Ground, or Water eating away the lower
parts, or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth.
’Tis true, I am not of their Opinion in either of these Explications;
and we shall shew at large hereafter, when we have propos’d and stated
our own Theory, how incompetent such Causes are, to bring the Earth into
that Form and Condition we now find it in. But in the mean time, we may
so far make use of these Opinions in general, as not to be startled at
this Doctrine, concerning the Breaking or Dissolution of the Exterior
Earth; for in all Ages the Face of Nature hath provok’d Men to think of
and observe such a Thing. And who can do otherwise, to see the Elements
displac’d and disorder’d, as they seem to lie at present; the heaviest
and grossest Bodies in the highest Places, and the liquid and volatile
kept below; an huge Mass of Stone or Rock rear’d into the Air, and the
Water creeping at its Feet; whereas this is the more light and active
Body, and by the Law of Nature should take Place of Rocks and Stones? So
we see, by the like Disorder, the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the
Earth, and the Earth got up among the Clouds; for there are the tops of
the Mountains, and under their Roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is
often detained. By what regular Action of Nature can we suppose things
first produc’d in this Posture and Form? Not to mention how broke and
torn the inward Substance of the Earth is, which of it self is an
uniform Mass, close and compact; but in the Condition we see it, it lies
hollow in many places, with great Vacuities intercepted betwixt the
Portions of it; a Thing which we see happens in all Ruins more or less,
especially when the Parts of the Ruins are great and inflexible. Then
what can have more the Figure and Mien of a Ruin, than Crags, and Rocks,
and Cliffs, whether upon the Sea-shore, or upon the Sides of Mountains?
What can be more apparently broke, than they are? And those lesser
Rocks, or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter’d near the Feet of
the other, whether in the Sea, or upon the Land, are they not manifest
Fragments and pieces of these greater Masses? Besides, the Posture of
these Rocks, which is often leaning or recumbent, or prostrate, shews to
the Eye, that they have had a Fall, or some kind of Dislocation from
their natural Site. And the same thing may be observed in the Tracks and
Regions of the Earth, which very seldom for ten Miles together have any
regular Surface or Continuity one with another, but lie high and low,
and are variously inclin’d sometimes one way, sometimes another, without
any Rule or Order. Whereas I see no Reason but the Surface of the Land
should be as regular as that of the Water in the first Production of it;
and the Strata or Beds within lie as even. This I am sure of, that this
Disposition of the Elements, and the Parts of the Earth, outward and
inward, hath something irregular and unnatural in it, and manifestly
shews us the Marks, or Footsteps of some kind of Ruin and Dissolution;
which we shall shew you, in its due Place, happen’d in such a way, that
at the same time a general Flood of Waters wou’d necessarily over-run
the Face of the whole Earth. And by the same fatal Blow, the Earth fell
out of that regular Form, wherein it was produc’d at first, into all
these Irregularities which we see in its present Form and Composition;
so that we shall give thereby a double Satisfaction to the Mind, both to
shew it a fair and intelligible Account of the general Deluge, how the
Waters came upon the Earth, and how they return’d into their Channels
again, and left the Earth habitable; and likewise to shew it how the
Mountains were brought forth, and the Channel of the Sea discover’d: How
all those Inequalities came in the Body or Face of the Earth, and those
empty Vaults and Caverns in its Bowels; which things are no less matter
of Admiration than the Flood it self.
BUT I must beg leave to draw a Curtain before the Work for a while, and
to keep your Patience a little in suspence, till Materials are prepar’d,
and all things ready to represent and explain what we have propos’d. Yet
I hope, in the mean time, to entertain the Mind with Scenes no less
pleasing, tho’ of quite another Face and Order; for we must now return
to the Beginning of the World, and look upon the first Rudiments of
Nature, and that dark but fruitful Womb, out of which all things sprang,
I mean the _Chaos_: For this is the Matter which we must next work upon,
and it will be no unpleasing thing to observe, how that rude Mass will
shoot it self into several Forms one after another, ’till it comes at
length to make an habitable World. The steady Hand of Providence, which
keeps all things in Weight and Measure, being the invisible Guide of all
its Motions. These Motions we must examine from first to last, to find
out what was the Form of the Earth, and what was the Place or Situation
of the Ocean, or the great Abyss, in that first State of Nature: Which
two things being determined, we shall be able to make a certain
Judgment, what kind of Dissolution that Earth was capable of, and
whether from that Dissolution an Universal Deluge would follow, with all
the Consequences of it.
IN the mean time, for the Ease and Satisfaction of the Reader, we will
here mark the Order and Distribution of the first Book, which we divide
into three Sections; whereof the first is these three Chapters past: In
the second Section we will shew, that the Earth before the Deluge was of
a different Frame and Form from the present Earth; and particularly of
such a form as made it subject to a Dissolution and to such a
Dissolution, as did necessarily expose it to an Universal Deluge. And in
this Place we shall apply our Discourse particularly to the Explication
of _Noah_’s Flood, and that under all its Conditions, of the Height of
the Waters, of their Universality, of the Destruction of the World by
them, and of their retiring afterwards from the Earth; and this Section
will consist of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Chapters.
In the Third Section we prove the same Dissolution from the Effects and
Consequences of it, or from the Contemplation of the present Face of the
Earth: And here an Account is given of the Origin of Mountains, of
subterraneous Waters and Caverns, of the great Channel of the Sea, and
of the first Production of Islands; and those things are the Contents of
the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Chapters. Then, in the last Chapter, we
make a general Review of the whole Work, and a general Review of Nature;
that by comparing them together, their full Agreement and Correspondency
may appear. Here several collateral Arguments are given for Confirmation
of the preceding Theory, and some Reflections are made upon the State of
the other Planets compar’d with the Earth. And lastly, what Accounts
soever have been given by others of the present Form and Irregularities
of the Earth, are examin’d and shew’d insufficient. And this seemeth to
be all that is requisite upon this Subject.