_The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book. The general State
of the Primæval Earth, and of Paradise._
We have already seen a World begin and perish; an Earth rais’d from the
Rudiments of a Chaos, and dissolv’d and destroy’d in an Universal
Deluge. We have given also an imperfect Description of that Primæval
Earth, so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and Manner of its
Dissolution. But we must not content our selves with this; seeing that
Earth was the first Theatre upon which Mortals appear’d and acted, and
continu’d so for above sixteen hundred Years; and that with Scenes, as
both Reason and History tell us, very extraordinary and very different
from these of our present Earth, ’tis reasonable we should endeavour to
make a more full Discovery and Description of it; especially seeing
_Paradise_ was there; that Seat of Pleasure which our first Parents
lost, and which all their Posterity have much ado to find again.
IN the First Book we so far describ’d this new-found World, as to shew
it very different in Form and Fabrick from the present Earth; there was
no Sea there, no Mountains, nor Rocks, nor broken Caves, ’twas all one
continued and regular Mass, smooth, simple and compleat, as the first
Works of Nature use to be. But to know thus much only, doth rather
excite our Curiosity than satisfy it; what were the other Properties of
this World? How were the Heavens, how the Elements? What Accommodation
for Human Life? Why was it more proper to be the Seat of _Paradise_ than
the present Earth? Unless we know these Things, you will say, it will
seem but an easy _Idea_ to us; and ’tis certain that the more Properties
and Particularities that we know concerning any thing, the more real it
appears to be.
AS it was our Chief Design therefore in the precedent Book, to give an
Account of the Universal Deluge, by way of a Theory; so we propose to
our selves chiefly in this Book, from the same Theory, to give an
Account of _Paradise_; and in performing of this, we shall be led into a
more full Examination and Display of that first Earth, and of its
Qualities. And if we be so happy, as, by the Conduct of the same
Principles and the same Method, to give as fair an Account, and as
intelligible of the State of _Paradise_ in that Original Earth, as we
have done of the Deluge by the Dissolution of it, and of the Form of
this Earth which succeeded, one must be very morose or melancholy to
imagine, that the Grounds we go upon, all this while, are wholly false
or fictitious. A Foundation which will bear the Weight of two Worlds
without sinking, must surely stand upon a firm Rock. And I am apt to
promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find Acceptance and
Credit, more or less, with all but those that think it a sufficient
Answer to all Arguments, to say, _it is a Novelty_.
BUT to proceed in our Disquisition concerning _Paradise_, we may note in
the first Place, two Opinions to be avoided, being both extreams; one
that placeth _Paradise_ in the extra-mundane Regions, or in the Air, or
in the Moon; and the other that makes it so inconsiderable, as to be
confin’d to a little Spot of Ground in _Mesopotamia_ or some other
Country of _Asia_, the Earth being now as it was then. This offends as
much in the Defect, as the other in the Excess. For it is not any single
Region of the Earth that can be _Paradisiacal_, unless all Nature
conspire, and a certain Order of Things proper and peculiar for that
State. Nor is it of less Importance to find out this peculiar Order of
Things, than to find out the particular Seat of _Paradise_, but rather
pre-requisite to it: We will endeavour therefore to discover and
determine both, so far as a Theory can go, beginning with that which is
more general.
’TIS certain there were some Qualities and Conditions of _Paradise_ that
were not meerly topical, but common to all the rest of the Earth at that
Time; and these we must consider in the first Place, examine what they
were, and upon what they depended. History, both Sacred and Profane,
must tell us what they were, and our Theory must shew us upon what
Causes they depended. I had once, I confess, propos’d to my self another
Method, independent upon History or Effects; I thought to have continued
the Description of the Primitive or antediluvian Earth from the
Contemplation of its Causes only, and then left it to the Judgment of
others to determine, whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age
was past, and where _Paradise_ stood. For I had observ’d three
Conditions or Characters of it, which I thought were sufficient to
answer all that we knew concerning that first State of Things, viz. _The
Regularity of its Surface; The Situation or Posture of its Body to the
Sun; and the Figure of it_: From these three general Causes I thought
might be deduc’d all the chief Differences of that Earth from the
present, and particularly those that made it more capable of being
_Paradisiacal_.
BUT upon second Thoughts I judg’d it more useful and expedient to lay
aside the Causes at present, and begin with the Effects, that we night
have some sensible Matter to work upon. Bare _Ideas_ of Things are
look’d upon as romantick till Effects be propos’d, whereof they are to
give an Account; ’Tis that makes us value the Causes when Necessity puts
us upon Enquiry after them; and the Reasons of Things are very
acceptable, when they ease the Mind, anxious and at a loss how to
understand Nature without their help. We will therefore, without more
ado, premise those Things that have been taken Notice of as
extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World, and to
_Paradise_, and which neither do, nor can, obtain in the present Earth;
whereof the first is a _perpetual Spring or Equinox_; the second, the
_Longævity of Animals_; and the third, _their Production out of the
Earth_, and the great Fertility of the Soil in all other Things.
THESE Difficulties guard the way to _Paradise_ like the flaming Sword,
and must be remov’d before we can enter; these are general Preliminaries
which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular
Place of this Garden of Pleasure. The Ancients have taken Notice of all
those in the first Ages of the World, or in their _golden Age_, as they
call it; and I do not doubt but what they ascribe to the golden Age, was
more remarkably true of _Paradise_; yet was not so peculiar to it, but
that it did in a good measure extend to other Parts of the Earth at that
Time. And ’tis manifest that their golden Age was contemporary with our
_Paradise_; for they make it begin immediately after the Production and
Inhabitation of the Earth (which they, as well as _Moses_, raise from
the Chaos) and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge; when the World
ended, and begun again.
THAT this Parallel may the better appear, we may observe, that as we say
that the whole Earth was, in some Sense, Paradisiacal in the first Ages
of the World, and that there was, besides, one Region or Portion of it
that was peculiarly so, and bore the Denomination of _Paradise_; So the
Ancients, beside their golden Age, which was common to all the Earth,
noted some Parts of it that were more golden, if I may so say, than the
rest, and which did more particularly answer to _Paradise_; as their
_Elysian_ Fields, Fortunate Islands, Gardens of _Hesperides_,
_Alcinous_, _&c._ these had a double Portion of Pleasantness, and,
beside the Advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth
at that Time, had something proper and singular, which gave them a
distinct Consideration and Character from the rest.
HAVING made this Observation, let us proceed, and see what Antiquity
saith, concerning that first and Paradisiacal State of Things, upon
those three Heads forementioned; First, that there was a perpetual
Spring, and constant Serenity of the Air. This is often repeated by the
ancient Poets, in their Description of the golden Age.
_Non alios prima crescentis origine mundi
Iluxisse dies, aliumve habuisse tenorem,
Crediderim: Ver illud erat, Ver magnus agebat
Orbis, & hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri._
Virgil.
_Such Days the new-born Earth enjoy’d of old;
And the calm Heavens in this same Tenor rowl’d:
All the great World had then one constant Spring;
No cold East-winds, such as our Winters bring._
For I interpret this in the same Sense with _Ovid_’s Verses of the
golden Age:
_Ver erat Æternum: Placidiq; tepentibus auris
Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores._
_The Spring was constant, and soft Winds that blew,
Rais’d without Seed, Flow’rs always sweet and new._
AND then upon the Expiration of the golden Age, he says,
_Jupiter antiqui contraxit tempora Veris, &c._
_When Jove begun to reign, he chang’d the Year,
And for one Spring four Seasons made appear._
THE Ancients suppos’d, that in the Reign of _Saturn_, who was an
antediluvian God, as I may so call him, Time flow’d with a more even
Motion, and there was no Diversity of Seasons in the Year; but
_Jupiter_, they say, first introduc’d that, when he came to manage
Affairs. This is exprest after their way, who seldom give any severe and
philosophical Accounts of the Changes of Nature. And as they suppos’d
this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age, so they did also in their
particular _Elysiums_; as I could shew largely from their Authors, if it
would not multiply Citations too much. ’Tis true, their _Elysiums_
respected the new Heavens, and new Earth to come, rather than the past;
but they are both fram’d upon the same Model, and have common
Properties.
THE Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and
Serenity of the Heavens in _Paradise_; such Expressions or Descriptions
you will find in _Justin Martyr_, _S. Basil_, _Damascen_, _Isidore
Hispalensis_, _De Grat. prim. hom._ and others, insomuch that
_Bellarmine_, I remember, reflecting upon those Characters of
_Paradise_, which many of the Fathers have given in these Respects,
saith, Such Things could not be, unless the Sun had then another Course
from what he hath now; or which is more easy, the Earth another
Situation. Which Conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well
grounded. In the mean Time, let us see the Christian Poetry upon this
Subject, as we have seen the _Roman_ upon the other. _Alcimus Avitus_
hath thus describ’d _Paradise_ in his Notes upon _Genesis_:
_Non hic alterni succedit temporis unquam
Bruma, nec æstivi redeunt post frigora Soles;
Hic Ver assiduum Cæli clementia servat.
Turbidus Auster abest, semperque sub aere sudo
Nubila diffugiunt, jugi cessura sereno.
Nec poscit Natura loci, quos non habet, imbres,
Sed contenta suo dotantur gerrmina rore.
Perpetuo viret omne solum, terræque benignæ
Blanda nitet facies: Stant semper collibus herbæ,
Arboribusque comæ, &c._
_No Change of Seasons or Excess was there,
No Winter chill’d, nor Summer scorch’d the Air,
But with a constant Spring, Nature was fresh and fair.
Rough Winds or Rains that Region never knew,
Water’d with Rivers and the Morning Dew;
The Heav’ns still clear, the Fields still green and gay,
No Clouds above, nor on the Earth decay;
Trees kept their Leaves and Verdure all the Year,
And Fruits were never out of Season there._
And as the Christian Authors, so likewise the _Jewish_ have spoken of
_Paradise_ in the same manner; they tell us also that the Days there
were always of the same Length throughout the whole Year; and that made
’em fancy _Paradise_ to lie under the Equinoctial; as we shall see in
its due Place. ’Tis true, we do not find these Things mention’d expresly
in the Sacred Writings, but the Effects that flow’d from ’em are
recorded there, and we may reasonably suppose Providence to have
foreseen, that when those Effects came to be scan’d and narrowly look’d
into, they would lead us to a Discovery of the Causes, and particularly
of this great and general Cause, that _perpetual Equinox_ and Unity of
Seasons in the Year, till the Deluge. The Longevity of the Antediluvians
cannot be explain’d upon any other Supposition, as we shall have
Occasion to shew hereafter; and that you know is recorded carefully in
Scripture: As also that there was no _Rainbow_ before the Flood; which
goes upon the same Ground, that there was no Variety of Seasons, nor any
Rain: And this by many is thought to be understood by _Moses_’s Words,
_Gen. ii. 5, 6._ which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth.
Lastly, Seeing the Earth then brought forth the Principles of Life and
all living Creatures (Man excepted) according to _Moses_, _Gen. i. 24._
we must suppose that the State of the Heavens was such as favour’d these
Conceptions and Births, which could not possibly be brought to
Perfection, as the Seasons of the Year are at present. The first time
that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter, and the
Differences of Seasons, is at the ending of the Deluge, _Gen. viii. 22._
_Henceforward all the Days of the Earth, Seed-time and Harvest, Heat and
Cold, Summer and Winter, Day and Night shall not cease._ ’Tis true these
Words are so lax, that they may be understood either of a new Course of
Nature then instituted, or of an old one restor’d; but seeing it doth
appear from other Arguments and Considerations, that there was at that
time a new Course of Nature constituted, it is more reasonable to
interpret the Words in that Sense; which, as it is agreeable to Truth,
according to Reason and Antiquity so it renders that Remark of _Moses_
of far greater Importance, if it be understood as an Indication of a new
Order then settled in Nature, which should continue henceforwards so
long as the Earth endur’d. Nor do I at all wonder that such things
should not be expresly and positively declar’d in Scripture; for Natural
Mysteries in the Holy Writings, as well as Prophetical, are many times,
on set Purpose, incompleatly deliver’d, so as to awaken and excite our
Thoughts rather than fully resolve them: This being often more suitable
to the Designs of Providence in the Government of the World. But thus
much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age, and
of _Paradise_, a _perpetual Serenity and perpetual Equinox_.
THE second Character is the Longevity of Men, and, as is probable, of
all other Animals in Proportion. This, methinks, is as strange and
surprising as the other, and I know no Difference betwixt the
Antediluvian World and the present, so apt to affect us, if we reflect
upon it, as this wonderful Disproportion in the Ages of Men; our
Forefathers and their Posterity: They liv’d seven, eight, nine hundred
Years and upwards, and ’tis a wonder now if a Man live to one hundred.
Our Oaks do not last so long as their Bodies did; Stone and Iron would
scarce outwear them. And this Property of the first Ages, or their
Inhabitants, how strange soever, is well attested, and beyond all
Exception, having the joint Consent of Sacred and Profane History. The
Scripture sets down the precise Age of a Series of Antediluvian
Patriarchs, and by that measures the Time from the beginning of the
World to the Deluge; so as all Sacred Chronology stands upon that
bottom. Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous
a Thing, that to save the Credit of _Moses_ and the Sacred History, they
interpret these Years of _Lunar_ Years or Months; and so the Ages of
these Patriarchs are reduc’d to much what the same measure with the
common Life of Man at this Time. It may be observ’d in this, as in many
other Instances, that for want of a Theory to make Things credible and
intelligible, Men of Wit and Parts have often deprest the Sense of
Scripture; and that not out of any ill Will to Scripture or Religion,
but because they could not otherwise, upon the Stock of their Notions,
give themselves a rational Account of Things recorded there. But I hope
when we come to explain the Causes of this Longevity, we shall shew that
it is altogether as strange a Thing that Men should have such short
Lives as they have now, as that they had such long Lives in the first
Ages of the World. In the mean time there are a great many collateral
Reasons to assure us that _Lunar_ Years cannot be here understood by
_Moses_, for all Antiquity gives the same Account of those first Ages of
the World, and of the first Men, that they were extreamly long-liv’d. We
meet with it generally in the Description of the Golden Age; and not
only so, but in their Topical _Paradises_ also they always suppos’d a
great Vivacity or Longevity in those that enjoy’d them. And _Josephus_,
speaking upon this Subject, _Book I. C. iv. Jew. Ant._ saith, the
Authors of all the learned Nations, _Greeks_, or _Barbarians_, bare
witness to _Moses_’s Doctrine in this Particular. And in the _Mosaical_
History it self, there are several Circumstances and Marks that discover
plainly, that the Years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of
_Lunar_ Years; as we shall have Occasion to shew in another Place. We
proceed in the mean time to the third and last Character, The
extraordinary Fertility of the Soil, and the Production of Animals out
of the new made Earth.
THE first part of this Character is unquestionable; All Antiquity speaks
of the Plenty of the Golden Age, and of their _Paradises_, whether
Christian or Heathen. The Fruits of the Earth were at first spontaneous,
and the Ground, without being torn and tormented, satisfied the Wants or
Desires of Man. When Nature was fresh and full, all things flow’d from
her more easily and more pure, like the first running of the Grape, or
the Honey-comb; but now she must be prest and squeez’d, and her
Productions taste more of the Earth and of bitterness. The ancient Poets
have often pleas’d themselves in making Descriptions of this happy
State, and in admiring the Riches and Liberality of Nature at that Time;
but we need not transcribe their Poetry here, seeing this Point is not,
I think, contested by any. The second Part of this Character, concerning
the spontaneous Origin of living Creatures out of that first Earth, is
not so unquestionable; and as to Man, _Moses_ plainly implies, that
there was a particular Action or Ministry of Providence in the Formation
of his Body; but as to other Animals, he seems to suppose that the Earth
brought them forth as it did Herbs and Plants. (_Gen. i. 24._ compar’d
with the 11th Verse.) And the Truth is, there is no such great
Difference betwixt Vegetable and Animal Eggs, or betwixt the Seeds out
of which Plants rise, and the Eggs out of which all Animals rise, but
that we may conceive the one as well as the other in the first Earth;
And as some Warmth and Influence from the Sun is required for the
Vegetation of Seeds, so that Influence or Impregnation, which is
necessary to make Animal Eggs fruitful, was imputed by the Ancients to
the _Æther_, or to an active and pure Element which had the same Effect
upon our great Mother the Earth, as the Irradiation of the Male hath
upon the Female’s Eggs.
_Tum Pater Omnipotens fœcundus imbribus Æther
Conjugis in gremium lætæ descendit._
_In fruitful Showers of Æther Jove did glide
Into the Bosom of his joyful Bride._
’TIS true, this Opinion of the spontaneous Origin of Animals in the
first Earth hath lain under some _Odium_, because it was commonly
reckon’d to be _Epicurus_’s Opinion peculiarly; and he extended it not
only to all Brute Creatures, but to Mankind also, whom he suppos’d to
grow out of the Earth in great Numbers, in several Parts and Countries,
like other Animals; which is a Notion contrary to the Sacred Writings;
for they declare, that all Mankind, though diffus’d now through the
several Parts and Regions of the Earth, rose at first from one Head or
single Man or Woman; which is a Conclusion of great Importance, and that
could not, I think, by the Light of Nature, have ever been discover’d.
And this makes the _Epicurean_ Opinion the more improbable, for why
should two rise only, if they sprung from the Earth? Or how could they
rise in their full Growth and Perfection, as _Adam_ and _Eve_ did? But
as for the Opinion of Animals rising out of the Earth at first, that was
not at all peculiar to _Epicurus_: The _Stoicks_ were of the same Mind,
and the _Pythagoreans_ and the _Egyptians_, and I think, all that
suppos’d the Earth to rise from a Chaos. Neither do I know any harm in
that Opinion, if duly limited and stated; for what Inconvenience is it,
or what Diminution of Providence, that there should be the Principles of
Life, as well as the Principles of Vegetation, in the new Earth? And
unless you suppose all the first Animals, as well as the first Man, to
have been made at one Stroke, in their full Growth and Perfection, which
we have neither Reason nor Authority sufficient to believe; if they were
made young, little, and weak, as they come now into the World, there
seems to be no way for their Production more proper, and decorous, than
that they should spring from their great Mother the Earth. Lastly,
considering the innumerable little Creatures that are upon the Earth,
Insects and creeping Things; and that these were not created out of
nothing, but form’d out of the Ground; I think that an Office most
proper for Nature, that can set so many Hands to work at once; and that
hath Hands fit for all those little Operations or Manufactures, how
small soever, that would less become the Dignity of Superior Agents.
THUS much for the Preliminaries, or three general Characters of
_Paradise_, which were common to it with the rest of the Primæval Earth;
and were the chief Ingredients of the Golden Age, so much celebrated by
the Ancients. I know there were several other Differences betwixt that
Earth and this; but these are the Original; and such as are not
necessary to be premis’d for the general Explication of _Paradise_, we
reserve for another Place. We may in the mean time observe, how
preposterously they go to work, that set themselves immediately to find
out some pleasant Place of the Earth to fix _Paradise_ in, before they
have consider’d, or laid any Grounds, to explain the general Conditions
of it, wheresoever it was. These must be first known and determin’d, and
we must take our Aim and Directions from these, how to proceed further
in out Enquiries after it; otherwise we sail without a Compass, or seek
a Port and know not which way it lies. And as we should think him a very
unskilful Pilot that sought a Place in the new World, or _America_, that
really was in the old; so they commit no less an Error, that seek
_Paradise_ in the present Earth, as now constituted, which could only
belong to the former, and to the State of the first World: As will
appear more plainly in the following Chapter.