_That the Earth and Mankind had an Original, and were not from
Eternity: Prov’d against Aristotle. The first Proposition of our
Theory laid down, viz. That the Antediluvian Earth was of a
different Form and Construction from the present. This is prov’d by
Divine Authority, and from the Nature and Form of the Chaos, out of
which the Earth was made._
WE are now to enquire into the Original of the Earth, and in what Form
it was built at first, that we may lay our Foundation for the following
Theory deep and sure. It hath been the general Opinion and Content of
the Learned of all Nations, that the Earth arose from a Chaos. This is
attested by History, both Sacred and Profane; only _Aristotle_, whom so
great a Part of the Christian World have made their Oracle or Idol, hath
maintain’d the Eternity of the Earth, and the Eternity of Mankind; that
the Earth and the World were from Everlasting, and in that very Form
they are in now, with Men and Women and all living Creatures, Trees and
Fruit, Metals and Minerals, and whatsoever is of natural Production. We
say all these Things arose and had their first Existence or Production
not six thousand Years ago: He saith, they have subsisted thus for ever,
through an infinite Series of past Generations, and shall continue as
long, without first or last: And if so, there was neither Chaos, nor any
other Beginning to the Earth. This takes away the Subject of our
Discourse, and therefore we must first remove this Stone out of the way,
and prove that the Earth had an Original, and that from a Chaos, before
we shew how it arose from a Chaos, and what was the first habitable Form
that it settled into.
WE are assur’d by Divine Authority, that the Earth and Mankind had a
beginning: _Moses_ saith, _In the Beginning God made the Heavens and the
Earth_. Speaking it as of a certain Period or Term, from whence he
counts the Age of the World. And the same _Moses_ tells us, that _Adam_
was the first Man, and _Eve_ the first Woman, from whom sprung the Race
of Mankind; and this within the Compass of Six Thousand Years. We are
also assur’d from the Prophets, and our Christian Records, that the
World shall have an End, and that by a general Conflagration, when all
Mankind shall be destroyed, with the Form, and all the Furniture of the
Earth. And as this proves the second Part of _Aristotle_’s Doctrine to
be false immediately, so doth it the first, by a true Consequence; for
what hath an End had a Beginning, what is not Immortal, was not Eternal:
That which exists by the Strength of its own Nature at first, the same
Nature will enable to exist for ever; and indeed what exists of it self,
exists necessarily; and what exists necessarily, exists eternally.
HAVING this infallible Assurance of the Origin of the Earth and of
Mankind from Scripture, we proceed to refute the same Doctrine of
_Aristotle_’s by natural Reason. And we will first consider the Form of
the Earth, and then Mankind; and shew, from plain Evidence and
Observation, neither of them to have been Eternal. ’Tis natural to the
Mind of Man to consider that which is compound, as having been once more
simple; whether that Composition be a Mixture of many Ingredients, as
most Terrestrial Bodies are, or whether it be Organical; but especially
if it be Organical: For a Thing that consists of a multitude of Pieces
aptly join’d, we cannot but conceive to have had those Pieces, at one
time or another, put together. ’Twere hard to conceive an eternal Watch,
whose Pieces were never separate one from another, nor ever in any other
Form than that of a Watch. Or an eternal House, whose Materials were
never asunder, but always in the Form of an House. And ’tis as hard to
conceive an _Eternal Earth_, or an _Eternal World_: These are made up of
more various Substances, more Ingredients, and into a far greater
Composition; and the living Part of the World, Plants and Animals, have
much more Variety of Parts and multifarious Construction, than any
House, or any other artificial Thing: So that we are led as much by
Nature and Necessity, to conceive this great Machine of the World, or of
the Earth, to have been once in a State of greater Simplicity than now
it is, as to conceive a Watch, an House, or any other Structure, to have
been once in its first and simple Materials. This I speak without
Reference to immediate Creation, for _Aristotle_ did not own any such
thing, and therefore the Argument stands good against him, upon those
Grounds and Notions that he goes; yet I guess what Answer would be made
by him or his Followers to this Argumentation: They would say, there is
not the same Reason for Natural things, as for Artificial, though
equally compounded. Artificial Things could not be from Eternity,
because they suppose Man, by whose Art they were made, pre-existent to
them; the Workman must be before the Work, and whatsoever hath any thing
before it, is not Eternal. But may not the same thing be said of Natural
things? Do not most of them require the Action of the Sun, and the
Influence of the Heavens for their Production, and longer Preparations
than any Artificial things do? Some Years or Ages would be necessary for
the Concoction and Maturation of Metals and Minerals; Stones themselves,
at least some sorts of them, were once Liquors, or fluid Masses; and all
Vegetable Productions require the Heat of the Sun, to predispose and
excite the Earth and the Seeds. Nay, according to _Aristotle_, ’tis not
Man by himself that begets a Man, but the Sun is his Coadjutor. You see
then ’twas as necessary that the Sun, that great Workman of Nature,
should pre-exist to Natural things, produc’d in, or upon the Earth, as
that Man should pre-exist to Artificial. So that the Earth, under that
Form and Constitution it now hath, could no more be Eternal, than a
Statue or Temple, or any Work of Art.
BESIDES, that Form, which the Earth is under at present, is in some sort
preternatural, like a Statue made and broken again; and so hath still
the less Appearance or Pretence of being Eternal. If the Elements had
lain in that Order to one another, as _Aristotle_ hath dispos’d them,
and as seems to be their first Disposition; the Earth altogether in a
Mass in the middle, or towards the Centre; then the Water in a Spherical
Mass about that; the Air above the Water, and then a Sphere of Fire, as
he fancied, in the highest Circle of the Air: If they had lain, I say,
in this Posture, there might have been some Pretence that they had been
Eternally so; because that might seem to be their Original Posture, in
which Nature had first plac’d them. But the Form and Posture we find
them in at present is very different, and according to his Doctrine must
be look’d upon as unnatural and violent; and no violent State, by his
own Maxim, can be perpetual, or can have been so.
BUT there is still a more pressing Consideration against this Opinion.
If this present State and Form of the Earth had been from Eternity, it
would have long ere this destroy’d itself, and chang’d itself: The
Mountains sinking by degrees into the Valleys, and into the Sea, and the
Waters rising above the Earth; which Form it would certainly have come
into, sooner or later, and in it continu’d drowned and uninhabitable,
for all succeeding Generations. For ’tis certain, that the Mountains and
higher Parts of the Earth grow lesser and lesser from Age to Age; and
that from many Causes, sometimes the Roots of them are weaken’d, and
eaten by subterraneous Fires, and sometimes they are torn and tumbled
down by Earthquakes, and fall into those Caverns that are under them;
and tho’ those violent Causes are not constant, or universal, yet if the
Earth had stood from Eternity, there is not a Mountain would have
escaped this Fate in one Age or other. The Course of these Exhalations
or Fires would have reach’d them all sooner or later, if thro’ infinite
Ages they had stood exposed to them. But there are also other causes
that consume them insensibly, and make them sink by degrees; and those
are chiefly the Winds, Rains, and Storms, and Heat of the Sun without;
and within, the soaking of Water and Springs, with Streams and Currents
in their Veins and Crannies. These two sorts of Causes would certainly
reduce all the Mountains of the Earth, in tract of Time, to Equality; or
rather lay them all under Water: For whatsoever moulders, or is wash’d
away from them, is carried down into the lower Grounds, and into the
Sea, and nothing is ever brought back again by any Circulation: Their
Losses are not repair’d, nor any proportionable Recruits made from any
other parts of Nature. So as the higher parts of the Earth being
continually spending, and the lower continually gaining, they must of
necessity at length come to an Equality; and the Waters that lie in the
lower parts and in the Channels, those Channels and Valleys being fill’d
up with Earth, would be thrust out and rise every where upon the Surface
of the Earth; which new Post, when they had once seiz’d on it, they
would never quit nor would any thing be able to dispossess them; for
’tis their natural Place and Situation which they always tend to, and
from which there is no Progress nor Regress in a Course of Nature. So
that the Earth would have been, both now, and from innumerable
Generations before this, all under Water and uninhabitable; if it had
stood from Everlasting, and this Form of it had been its first Original
Form.
NOR can he doubt of this Argumentation, that considers the Coherence of
it, and will allow time enough for the Effect. I do not say the Earth
would be reduc’d to this uninhabitable Form in ten thousand Years time,
tho’ I believe it would: But take twenty, if you please, take an hundred
thousand, take a million, ’tis all one, for you may take the one as
easily as the other out of Eternity; and they make both equally against
their Supposition. Nor is it any matter how little you suppose the
mountains to decrease ’tis but taking more time, and the same Effect
still follows. Let them but waste as much as a Grain of Mustard-Seed
every Day, or a Foot in an Age, this would be more than enough in ten
thousand Ages to consume the tallest Mountain upon Earth. The Air alone,
and the little drops of Rain have defac’d the strongest and the proudest
Monuments of the _Greeks_ and _Romans_; and allow them but time enough,
and they will of themselves beat down the Rocks into the Sea, and the
Hills into the Valleys. But if we add to these all those other
foremention’d Causes that work with more Violence, and the Weight of the
Mountains themselves, which, upon any occasion offer’d, is ready to sink
them lower, we shall shorten the Time and make the Effect more sure.
WE need add no more here in particular against this _Aristotelian_
Doctrine, that makes the present Form of the Earth to have been from
Eternity; for the Truth is, this whole Book is one continued Argument
against that opinion; shewing that it hath _de facto_ chang’d its Form;
both in that we have prov’d that it was not capable of an universal
Deluge in this Form, and consequently was once under another; and also
in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the Third and
Fourth Sections, that it hath been broken and dissolv’d. We might also
add one Consideration more, that if it had stood always under this Form,
it would have been under Fire, if it had not been under Water; and the
Conflagration, which it is to undergo, would have overtaken it long ere
this. For St. _Peter_ saith, The Heavens and the Earth that are now, as
oppos’d to the Antediluvian, and consider’d in their present Form and
Constitution, are fitted to be consumed by Fire. And whosoever
understands the Progress and Revolutions of Nature, will see that
neither the present Form of the Earth, nor its first Form, were
permanent and immutable Forms, but transient and temporary by their own
Frame and Constitution; which the Author of Nature, after certain
Periods of Time, had design’d for Change and for Destruction.
THUS much for the Body of the Earth, that it could not have been from
Eternity, as _Aristotle_ pretended, in the Form it hath. Now let’s
consider the Origination of Mankind; and that we shall find could much
less be Eternal than the other; for whatsoever destroy’d the Form of the
Earth, would also destroy Mankind; and besides, there are many
particular Marks and Arguments, that the Generations of Men have not
been from Everlasting. All History, and all Monuments of Antiquity, of
what kind soever, are but of a few Thousand of Years date; we have still
the Memory of the Golden Age, of the first State of Nature, and how
Mortals liv’d then in Innocency and Simplicity. The Invention of Arts,
even those that are necessary or useful to Human Life, hath been within
the Knowledge of Men: How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients,
how imperfect their Knowledge of the Earth, how imperfect their
Navigation? Can we imagine, if there had been Men from Everlasting, a
Sea as now, and all materials for shipping as much as we have, that Men
could have been so ignorant, both of the Land and of the Sea, as ’tis
manifest they have been till of late Ages? They had very different
Fancies concerning the Figure of the Earth. They knew no Land beyond our
Continent, and that very imperfectly too; and the Torrid Zone they
thought utterly uninhabitable. We think it strange, taking that short
Date of the World, which we give it, that Men should not have made more
Progress in the Knowledge of these Things; but how impossible is it
then, if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting? They had the
same Wit and Passions that we have, the same Motives that we have, can
we then imagine, that neither the Ambition of Princes, nor Interest or
Gain in private Persons, nor Curiosity and the Desire of Knowledge, nor
the Glory of Discoveries, nor any other Passion or Consideration could
ever move them in that endless time, to try their Fortunes upon the Sea,
and know something more of the World they inhabited? Though you should
suppose them generally stupid, which there is no Reason to do, yet in a
Course of infinite Generations, there would be some great Genii, some
extraordinary Persons that would attempt things above the rest. We have
done more within the compass of our little World, which we can but count
(as to this) from the general Deluge, than those Eternal Men had done in
their innumerable Ages foregoing.
YOU will say it may be, they had not the Advantages and Opportunities
for Navigation as we have, and for Discoveries; because the use of the
Loadstone, and the Mariners needle was not then known. But that’s the
Wonder, that either that Invention, or any other should not be brought
to light till t’other Day, if the World had stood from Eternity. I say
this or any other practical Invention; for such Things, when they are
once found out and known, are not easily lost again, because they are of
daily use. And ’tis in most other practical arts, as in Navigation, we
generally know their original and History; who the Inventors, and by
what degrees improv’d, and how few of them brought to any Perfection
till of late Ages. All the Artificial and Mechanical World is in a
manner new; and what you may call the _Civil_ World too is in a great
measure so. What relates to Government, and Laws; to Wars and
Discipline; we can trace these things to their Origin, or very near it.
The use of Money and of Coins, nay the Use of the very Elements; for
they tell us of the first Invention of fire by _Prometheus_, and the
employing of Wind or Water to turn the Mills, and grind their Corn was
scarce known before the _Romans_, _Plin. l. 7. c. 56._ And that we may
think nothing eternal here, they tell us the Ages and Genealogies of
their very Gods. The measures of Time for the common uses of Life, the
dividing it into Hours, with the Instruments for those Purposes, are not
of an unknown Date: Even the Arts for preparing Food and Cloathing,
Medicines and Medicaments, Building, Civil and Military, Letters and
Writing, which are the Foundations of the World Civil: These, with all
their Retinue of lesser Arts and Trades that belong to them, History and
Tradition tell us when they had their Beginning, or were very imperfect;
and how many of their Inventors and Inventresses were deify’d. The World
hath not stood so long but we can still run it up to those artless Ages,
when Mortals liv’d by plain Nature; when there was but one Trade in the
World, one Calling, to look to their Flocks; and afterwards to till the
Ground, when Nature grew less liberal: And may we not reasonably think
this the Beginning of Mankind, or very near it? If Man be a Creature,
both naturally sagacious to find out its own Conveniencies, and
naturally sociable and inclin’d to live in a Community, a little Time
would make them find out and furnish themselves with what was necessary
in these two kinds, for the Conveniencies of single Life, and the
Conveniencies of Societies; they would not have liv’d infinite Ages,
unprovided of them. If you say _Necessity_ is the Mother of Arts and
Inventions, and there was no Necessity before, and therefore these
things were so slowly invented; this is a good Answer upon our
Supposition, that the World began but some Ages before these were found
out, and was abundant with all Things at first; and Men not very
numerous, and therefore were not put so much to the use of their Wits,
to find out Ways for living commodiously. But this is no Answer upon
their Supposition; for if the World was eternal and Men too, there were
no first Ages, no new and fresh Earth; Men were never less numerous, nor
the Earth more fruitful; and consequently there was never less Necessity
at any time than is now. This also brings to Mind another Argument
against this Opinion, (_viz._) from the gradual Increase of Mankind.
’Tis certain the World was not so populous one or two thousand Years
since, as it is now, seeing ’tis observ’d in particular Nations, that
within the Space of two or three hundred Years, notwithstanding all
Casualties, the Number of Men doubles. If then the Earth had stood from
Everlasting, it had been overstock’d long ere this, and would not have
been capable to contain its Inhabitants many Ages and Millions of Ages
ago. Whereas we find the Earth is not yet sufficiently inhabited, and
there is still Room for some Millions. And we must not fly to universal
Deluges and Conflagrations to destroy Mankind; for besides that the
Earth was not capable of a Deluge in this present Form, nor would have
been in this Form after a Conflagration, _Aristotle_ doth not admit of
these universal Changes, nor any that hold the Form of the Earth to be
eternal. But to return to our Arts and Inventions.
WE have spoken of practical Arts and Inventions useful in human Life;
then for Theoretical Learning and Sciences, there is nothing yet
finish’d or compleat in these; and what is known hath been chiefly the
Production of latter Ages. How little hath been discover’d till of late,
either of our own Bodies, or of the Body of the Earth, and of the
Functions or Motions of Nature in either? What more obvious, one would
think, than the Circulation of the Blood? What can more excite our
Curiosity than the flowing and ebbing of the Sea? Than the Nature of
Metals and Minerals? These are either yet unknown, or were so at least
till this last Age; which seems to me, to have made a greater Progress
than all Ages before put together, since the beginning of the World. How
unlikely is it then that these Ages were Eternal? That the Eternal
Studies of our Fore-fathers could not effect so much as a few Years have
done of late? And the whole Mass of Knowledge in this Earth doth not
seem to be so great, but that a few Ages more, with two or three happy
Genius’s in them, may bring to light all that we are capable to
understand in this State of Mortality.
TO these Arguments concerning the Novelty of the Earth, and the Origin
of Mankind, I know there are some shuffling Excuses made, but they can
have little Effect upon those Instances we have chosen. And I would ask
those Eternalists one fair Question, What Mark is there that they could
expect or desire of the Novelty of a World, that is not found in this?
Or what Mark is there of Eternity that is found in this? If then their
Opinion be without any positive Argument, and against all Appearances in
Nature, it may be justly rejected as unreasonable upon all Accounts.
’Tis not the bold asserting of a Thing that makes it true, or that makes
it credible against Evidence. If one should assert that such an one had
liv’d from all Eternity, and I could bring Witnesses that knew him a
Sucking-child, and others that remembred him a School-boy, I think it
would be a fair Proof, that the Man was not Eternal. So if there be
Evidence, either in Reason or History, that it is not very many Ages
since Nature was in her Minority, as appears by all those Instances we
have given above; some whereof trace her down to her very Infancy: This,
I think, may be taken for a good Proof that she is not Eternal. And I do
not doubt, but if the History of the World was writ Philosophically,
giving an Account of the several States of Mankind in several Ages, and
by what Steps or Degrees they came from their first Rudeness or
Simplicity to that Order of Things, both Intellectual and Civil, which
the World is advanc’d to at present, That alone would be a full
Conviction, that the Earth and Mankind had a Beginning. As the Story of
_Rome_, how it rose from a mean Original, by what degrees it increas’d,
and how it chang’d its Form and Government till it came to its
Greatness, doth satisfy us very well, that the _Roman_ Empire was not
Eternal.
THUS much concerning the Temporal Original of the Earth. We are now to
consider the manner of it, and to shew how it rose from a Chaos. I do
not remember that any of the Ancients that acknowledge the Earth to have
had an Original, did deny that Original to have been from a Chaos. We
are assur’d of both from the Authority of _Moses_, who saith, that in
the Beginning the Earth was _Tohu Bohu_, without Form and Void; a fluid,
dark, confus’d Mass, without Distinction of Elements; and made up of all
Variety of Parts, but without Order, or any determinate Form; which is
the true Description of a Chaos: And so it is understood by the general
Consent of Interpreters both Hebrew and Christian. We need not therefore
spend any time here to prove, that the Origin of the Earth was from a
Chaos, seeing that it is agreed on by all that give it any Origin. But
we will proceed immediately to examine into what Form it first rose when
it came out of that Chaos; or what was the primæval Form of the Earth,
that continued till the Deluge, and how the Deluge depended upon it, and
upon its Dissolution.
And, that we may proceed in this Enquiry by such easy steps as any one
may readily follow, we will divide it into Three Propositions, whereof
the first is this in general; _that the Form of the Antediluvian Earth,
or of the Earth that rose first from the Chaos, was different from the
Form of the present Earth_. I say, _different in general_, without
specifying yet what its particular Form was, which shall be exprest in
the following Proposition.
THIS first Proposition we have in effect prov’d in the second Chapter;
where we have shewn, that if the Earth had been always in this Form, it
would not have been capable of a Deluge; seeing that could not have been
effected without such an infinite Mass of Water as could neither be
brought upon the Earth, nor afterward any way removed from it. But we
will not content our selves with that Proof only, but will prove it also
from the Nature of the Chaos, and the manifest Consequences of it. And
because this is a leading Proposition, we think it not improper to prove
it also from Divine Authority, there being a pregnant Passage to this
Purpose in the Writings of St. _Peter_. Where treating of this very
Subject, the Deluge, he manifestly puts a difference between the
Antediluvian Earth and the present Earth, as to their Form and
Constitution. The Discourse is in the second Epistle of St. _Peter_, the
third Chapter, where certain Deists, as they seem to have been, laught
at the Prophecy of the Day of Judgment, and of the Conflagration of the
World, using this Argument against it, _That since the Fathers fell
asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning_. All
External Nature hath continued the same without any remarkable Change or
Alteration, and why should we believe, say they, there will be any? What
Appearance, or what Foundation is there of such a Revolution, that all
Nature will be dissolved, and the Heavens and the Earth consum’d with
Fire, as your Prophecies pretend? So from the Permanency and
Immutability of Nature hitherto, they argu’d its Permanency and
Immutability for the future. To this the _Apostle_ answers, that they
are willing to forget, that the Heavens and the Earth of old had a
particular Form and Constitution as to Water, by reason whereof the
World, that then was, perish’d by a Deluge. And the Heavens and the
Earth that are now, or since the Deluge, have a particular Constitution
in reference to Fire, by reason whereof they are expos’d to another sort
of Destruction or Dissolution, namely by Fire, or by an universal
Conflagration. The Words of the Apostle, _Chap. iii. v. 5, 6, 7._ are
these; _For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the Word of God
the Heavens were of old, and the Earth, consisting of Water, and by
Water_; or (as we render it) _standing out of the Water, and in the
Water; wherein the World that then was, being overflow’d with Water,
perish’d. But the Heavens and the Earth that are now, by the same Word
are kept in store, reserv’d unto Fire against the Day of Judgment_. We
shall have occasion, it may be, hereafter to give a full Illustration of
these Words; but at present we shall only take notice of this in
general, that the Apostle here doth plainly intimate some difference
that was between the old World and the present World, in their Form and
Constitution; or betwixt the Antediluvian and the present Earth, by
reason of which difference, that was subject to perish by a Deluge, as
this is subject to perish by Conflagration. And as this is the general
Air and Importance of this Discourse of the Apostle’s, which every one
at first sight would discover; so we may in several particular ways
prove from it our first Proposition, which now we must return to;
(_viz._) _That the Form and Constitution of the Antediluvian Earth was
different from that of the present Earth._ This may be inferr’d from the
Apostle’s Discourse, first, because he makes an opposition betwixt these
two Earths, or these two natural Worlds; and that not only in respect of
their Fate, the one perishing by Water, as the other will perish by
Fire, but also in respect of their different Disposition and
Constitution leading to this different Fate; for otherwise his _fifth
Verse_ is superfluous, and his Inference in the _sixth_ ungrounded; you
see he premiseth in the _fifth Verse_ as the Ground of his Discourse,
what the Constitution of the antediluvian Heavens and Earth was, and
then infers from it in the _sixth Verse_, that they therefore perish’d
in a Deluge of Water. Now if they had been the same with ours, there had
neither been any Ground for making an Opposition betwixt them, nor any
Ground of making a contrary Inference as to their Fate. Besides, in that
he implies that the Constitution of the antediluvian Earth was such, as
made it subject to a Deluge; he shews that it was different from the
Constitution of the present Earth; for the Form of that is such, as
makes it rather incapable of a Deluge, as we have shewn in the second
Chapter. Then we are to observe further, that when he saith (_v. 6._)
that the first World perish’d in a Deluge, or was destroy’d by it; this
is not to be understood of the animate World only, Men and living
Creatures, but of the natural world, and the Frame of it; for he had
describ’d it before by the Heavens and the Earth, which make the natural
World. And the Objection of the Atheists, or Deists rather, which he was
to answer, proceeded upon the natural World. And lastly, this perishing
of the world in a Deluge is set against, or compar’d with the perishing
of the World in the Conflagration, when the Frame of Nature will be
dissolv’d. We must therefore, according to the Tenor of the Apostle’s
arguing, suppose, that the natural World was destroy’d or perish’d in
the Deluge; and seeing it did not perish as to Matter and Substance, it
must be as to the Form, Frame and Composition of it, that it perish’d;
and consequently, the present Earth is of another Form and Frame from
what it had before the Deluge; which was the thing to be proved.
LASTLY, Let us consider what it is the Apostle tells these Scoffers that
they were ignorant of: Not that there was a Deluge, they could not be
ignorant of that; nor doth he tell them that they were. But he tells
them that they were ignorant that the Heavens and the Earth of old were
so and so constituted, after a different manner than they are now, and
that the State of Nature was chang’d at the Deluge; if they had known or
attended to this, they had made no such Objection, nor us’d any such
Argument as they did against the future Conflagration of the World. They
pretended that there had been no Change in Nature since the beginning,
and the Apostle in answer tells them, that they are willingly ignorant
of the first Constitution of the Heavens, and the Earth, and of that
Change and Dissolution that happen’d to them in the Deluge; and how the
present Heavens and Earth have another Constitution, whereby in like
manner they are expos’d, in God’s due time, to be consum’d or dissolv’d
by Fire. This is the plain, easy and natural Import of the Apostle’s
Discourse; thus all the Parts of it are coherent, and the Sense genuine
and apposite, and this is a full Confirmation of our first and general
Assertion, That _the antediluvian Earth was of another Form from the
present Earth_. This hath been observ’d formerly by some of the Ancients
from this Text, but that it hath not been generally observ’d, was partly
because they had no Theory to back such an Interpretation, and make it
intelligible; and partly because they did not observe, that the
Apostle’s Discourse here was an Argumentation, and not a bare
Affirmation, or simple Contradiction to those that rais’d the Scruple;
’tis an Answer upon a Ground taken, he premiseth, and then infers, in
the _fifth_ and _sixth_ Verses, concerning the Deluge; and in the
_seventh_, concerning the Conflagration. And when I had discover’d in my
Thoughts from the Consideration of the Deluge, and other natural
Reasons, that the Earth was certainly once in another Form, it was a
great Assurance and Confirmation to me, when I reflected on this place
of St. _Peter_’s; which seems to be so much directed and intended for
the same purpose, or to teach us the same Conclusion, that though I
design’d chiefly a Philosophical Theory of these Things, yet I should
not have thought we had been just to Providence, if we had neglected to
take Notice of this Passage and Sacred Evidence; which seems to have
been left us on purpose to excite our Enquiries, and strengthen our
Reasonings, concerning the first State of Things. Thus much from Divine
Authority: We proceed now to prove the same Proposition from Reason and
Philosophy, and the Contemplation of the Chaos, from whence the first
Earth arose.
WE need not upon this Occasion make a particular Description of the
Chaos, but only consider it as a fluid Mass, or a Mass of all sorts of
little Parts and Particles of Matter mix’d together, and floating in
Confusion, one with another. ’Tis impossible that the Surface of this
Mass should be of such a Form and Figure, as the Surface of our present
Earth is: Or that any Concretion or consistent State which this Mass
could flow into immediately, or first settle in, could be of such a Form
and Figure as our present Earth. The first of these Assertions is of
easy proof; for a fluid Body, we know, whether it be Water or any other
Liquor, always casts it self into a smooth and spherical Surface; and if
any Parts, by Chance, or by some Agitation, become higher than the rest,
they do not continue so, but glide down again every way into the lower
Places, till they all come to make a Surface of the same height, and of
the same distance every where from the Center of their Gravity. A
Mountain of Water is a thing impossible in Nature, and where there are
no Mountains there are no Valleys. So also a Den or Cave within the
Water, that hath no Walls but the liquid Element, is a Structure unknown
to Art or Nature; all things there must be full within, and even and
level without, unless some external Force keep them by Violence in
another Posture. But is this the Form of our Earth, which is neither
regularly made within nor without? The Surface and exterior Parts are
broken into all sorts of Inequalities, Hills and Dales, Mountains and
Valleys; and the plainer Tracts of it lie generally inclin’d or bending
one way or other, sometimes upon an easy Descent, and other times with a
more sensible and uneasy Steepness; and though the great Mountains of
the Earth were taken all away, the remaining parts would be more unequal
than the roughest Sea; whereas the Face of the Earth should resemble the
Face of the calmest Sea, if it was still in the Form of its first Mass.
But what shall we say then to the huge Mountains of the Earth, which lie
sometimes in Lumps or Clusters heapt up by one another, sometimes
extended in long Ridges or Chains, for many hundred Miles in length? And
’tis remarkable, that in every Continent, and in every ancient and
original Island, there is either such a Cluster, or such a Chain of
Mountains. And can there be any more palpable Demonstrations than these
are, that the Surface of the Earth is not in the same Form that the
Surface of the Chaos was, or that any fluid Mass can stand or hold it
self in?
THEN for the Form of the Earth within or under its Surface, ’tis no less
impossible for the Chaos to imitate that; for ’tis full of Cavities and
empty Places, of Dens and broken Holes, whereof some are open to the
Air, and others cover’d and enclos’d wholly within the Ground. These are
both of them unimitable in any liquid Substance, whose Parts will
necessarily flow together into one continued Mass, and cannot be divided
into Apartments and separate Rooms, nor have Vaults or Caverns made
within it; the Walls would sink, and the Roof fall in: For liquid Bodies
have nothing to sustain their Parts, nor any thing to cement them; they
are all loose and incoherent, and in a perpetual Flux: Even an heap of
Sand or fine Powder will suffer no Hollowness within them, though they
be dry Substances, and though the Parts of them being rough will hang
together a little and stand a little upon an Heap; but the Parts of
Liquors being glib, and continually in motion, they fall off from one
another, which way soever Gravity inclines them, and can neither have
any Hills or Eminencies on their Surface, nor any Hollowness within
their Substance.
YOU will acknowledge, it may be, that this is true, and that a liquid
Mass or Chaos, while it was liquid, was incapable of either the outward
or inward Form of the Earth; but when it came to a Concretion, to a
State of Consistency and Firmness, then it might go, you’ll say, into
any Form. No, not in its first Concretion, nor in its first State of
Consistence; for that would be of the same Form that the Surface of it
was when it was liquid, as Water when it congeals, the Surface of the
Ice is smooth and level, as the Surface of the Water was before; so
Metals, or any other Substances melted, or Liquors that of themselves
grow stiff and harden, always settle into the same Form which they had
when they were last liquid, and are always solid within, and smooth
without, unless they be cast in a Mould, that hinders the Motion and
Flux of the Parts. So that the first concrete State or consistent
Surface of the Chaos must be of the same Form or Figure with the last
liquid State it was in; for that is the Mould, as it were, upon which it
is cast; as the Shell of an Egg is of a like Form with the Surface of
the Liquor it lies upon. And therefore by Analogy with all other Liquors
and Concretions, the Form of the Chaos, whether liquid or concrete,
could not be the same with that of the present Earth, or like it: And
consequently, that Form of the first or primogenial Earth which rose
immediately out of the Chaos, was not the same, nor like to that of the
present Earth; which was the first and preparatory Proposition we laid
down to be prov’d. And this being prov’d by the Authority both of our
Reason and our Religion, we will now proceed to the second which is more
particular.