_The great Change of the World since the Flood from what it was in
the first Ages. The Earth under its present Form could not be
Paradisiacal, nor any Part of it._
_THE Scheme of this World passeth away_, saith an Holy Author: the Mode
and Form both of the Natural and Civil World changeth continually more
or less, but most remarkable at certain Periods, when all Nature puts on
another Face; as it will do at the Conflagration, and hath done already
from the Time of the Deluge. We may imagine how different a Prospect the
first World would make from what we see now in the present State of
Things, if we consider only those Generals, by which we have describ’d
it in the foregoing Chapter, and what their Influence would be upon
Mankind and the rest of Nature. For every new State of Nature doth
introduce a new Civil Order, and a new Face and Oeconomy of Human
Affairs: And I am apt to think, that some two Planets, that are under
the same State or Period, do not so much differ from one another, as the
same Planet doth from it self in different Periods of its Duration. We
do not seem to inhabit the same World that our first Fore-fathers did,
nor scarce to be the same Race of Men. Our Life now is so short and
vain, as if we came into the World only to see it and leave it; by that
Time we begin to understand our selves a little, and to know where we
are, and how to act our part, we must leave the Stage, and give Place to
others as meer Novices as we were our selves at our first Entrance. And
this short Life is employ’d in a great Measure to preserve our selves
from Necessity, or Diseases, or Injuries of the Air, or other
Inconveniences; to make one Man easy, ten must work and do drudgery; The
Body takes up so much Time, we have little Leisure for Contemplation, or
to cultivate the Mind. The Earth doth not yield us Food, but with much
Labour and Industry; and what was her free-will Offering before, or an
easy Liberality, can scarce now be extorted from her. Neither are the
Heavens more favourable, sometimes in one Extream, sometimes in another;
The Air often impure or infectious, and, for a great Part of the Year,
Nature her self seems to be sick or dead. To this Vanity the external
Creation is made subject as well as Mankind, and so must continue till
the Restitution of all Things.
CAN we imagine, in those happy Times and Places we are treating of, that
Things stood in this same Posture? Are these the Fruits of the golden
Age and of _Paradise_, or consistent with their Happiness? And the
Remedies of these Evils must be so universal, you cannot give them to
one Place or Region of the Earth, but all must participate: For these
are Things that flow from the Course of the Heavens, or such general
Causes, as extend at once to all Nature. If there was a perpetual Spring
and perpetual Equinox in _Paradise_, there was at the same Time a
perpetual Equinox all the Earth over; unless you place _Paradise_ in the
middle of the Torrid Zone. So also the long Lives of the Antediluvians
was an universal Effect, and must have had an universal Cause. ’Tis
true, in some single Parts or Regions of the present Earth, the
Inhabitants live generally longer than in others, but do not approach in
any Measure the Age of their antediluvian Fore-fathers; and that degree
of Longevity which they have above the rest, they owe to the Calmness
and Tranquillity of their Heavens and Air; which is but an imperfect
Participation of that Cause which was once universal, and had its Effect
throughout the whole Earth. And as to the Fertility of this Earth,
though in some Spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others, and
more delicious; yet that of the first Earth was a Fertility of another
kind, being spontaneous, and extending to the Production of Animals,
which cannot be without a favourable Concourse from the Heavens also.
THUS much in general; we will now go over those three fore-mention’d
Characters more distinctly, to shew, by their Unsuitableness to the
present State of Nature, that neither the whole Earth, as it is now, nor
any Part of it, could be _Paradisiacal_. The perpetual Spring, which
belong’d to the golden Age, and to _Paradise_, is an Happiness this
present Earth cannot pretend to, nor is capable of, unless we could
transfer the Sun from the Ecliptick to the Equator, or, which is as
easy, persuade the Earth to change its Posture to the Sun. If
_Archimedes_ had found a Place to plant his Machines in for removing of
the Earth, all that I should have desir’d of him, would have been only
to have given it an Heave at one End, and set it a little to rights
again with the Sun, that we might have enjoy’d the Comfort of a
perpetual Spring, which we have lost by its Dislocation ever since the
Deluge. And there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a
_Paradisiacal_ State than this Unity and equality of Seasons, where that
cannot be, ’tis in vain to seek for the rest of _Paradise_.
THE spontaneous Fruitfulness of the Ground was a thing peculiar to the
Primigenial Soil, which was so temper’d, as made it more Luxuriant at
that time than it could ever be afterwards; and as that rich Temperament
was spent, so by degrees it grew less fertile. The Origin or Production
of Animals out of the Earth depended not only upon this vital
Constitution of the Soil at first, but also upon such a Posture and
Aspect of the Heavens, as favour’d, or at least permitted Nature, to
make her best Works out of this prepar’d Matter, and better than could
be made in that manner after the Flood. _Noah_, we see, had Orders given
him to preserve the Races of living Creatures in his Ark, when the old
World was destroy’d; which is an Argument to me, that Providence foresaw
that the Earth would not be capable to produce them under its new Form;
and that, not only for want of Fitness in the Soil, but because of the
Diversity of Seasons which were then to take place, whereby Nature would
be disturb’d in her Work, and the Subject to be wrought upon would not
continue long enough in the same due Temper. But this Part of the second
Character, concerning the Original of Animals, deserves to be further
examin’d and explain’d.
THE first Principles of Life must be tender and ductile, that they may
yield to all the Motions and gentle Touches of Nature; otherwise it is
not possible, that they should be wrought with that Curiosity, and drawn
into all those little fine Threads and Textures, that we see and admire
in some parts of the Bodies of Animals. And as the Matter must be so
constituted at first, so it must be kept in a due Temper till the Work
be finish’d, without any Excess of Heat or Cold; and accordingly we see
that Nature hath made Provision in all sorts of Creatures whether
Oviparous or Viviparous, that the first Rudiments of Life should be
preserv’d from all Injuries of the Air, and kept in a moderate Warmth.
Eggs are enclos’d in a Shell, or Film, and must be cherished with an
equal gentle heat, to begin Formation and continue it, otherwise the
Work miscarries: And in Viviparous Creatures, the Materials of Life are
safely lodg’d in the Female’s Womb, and conserv’d in a fit Temperature
’twixt heat and cold, while the Causes that Providence hath employ’d are
busy at work, fashioning and placing and joining the Parts in that due
Order which so wonderful a Fabrick requires.
LET us now compare these Things with the Birth of Animals in the
new-made World, when they first rose out of the Earth, to see what
Provision could be made there for their Safety and Nourishment, while
they were a making, and when newly made; and though we take all
Advantages we can, and suppose both the Heavens and the Earth
favourable, a fit Soil and a warm and constant Temper of the Air, all
will be little enough to make this way of Production feasible or
probable. But if we suppose there was then the same Inconstancy of the
Heavens that is now, the same Vicissitude of Seasons, and the same
inequality of Heat and Cold, I do not think it at all possible that they
could be so form’d, or, being new-form’d, preserv’d and nourish’d. ’Tis
true, some little Creatures that are of short Dispatch in their
Formation, and find Nourishment enough wheresoever they are bred, might
be produc’d and brought to Perfection in this way, notwithstanding any
Inequality of Seasons; because they are made all at a Heat, as I may so
say, begun and ended within the compass of one Season. But the great
Question is, concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals, that require
a long stay in the Womb, to make them capable to sustain and nourish
themselves when they first come into the World. Such Animals, being big
and strong, must have a pretty Hardness in their Bones, and Force and
Firmness in their Muscles and Joints, before they can bear their own
weight, and exercise the common Motions of their Body: And accordingly
we see Nature hath ordain’d for these a longer Time of Gestation, that
their Limbs and Members might have time to acquire Strength and
Solidity. Besides, the young ones of these Animals have commonly the
Milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth, which is a
very proper Nourishment, and like to that which they had before in the
Womb; and by this means their Stomachs are prepar’d by degrees for
coarser Food; Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been wean’d as
soon as they were born, or as soon as they were separated from their
Mother the Earth, and therefore must be allow’d a longer Time of
Continuing there.
THESE Things being consider’d, we cannot in Reason but suppose, that
these Terrigenous Animals were as long, or longer, a Perfecting, than
our Viviparous, and were not separated from the Body of the Earth for
ten, twelve, eighteen, or more Months, according as their Nature was;
and seeing in this Space of Time they must have suffer’d, upon the
common _Hypothesis_, all Vicissitudes and Variety of Seasons, and great
Excesses of Heat and Cold, which are Things incompatible with the tender
Principles of Life, and the Formation of living Creatures, as we have
shewn before; we may reasonably and safely conclude, that Nature had
not, when the World began, the same Course she hath now, or that the
Earth was not then in its present Posture and Constitution: Seeing, I
say, these first spontaneous Births, which both the Holy Writ, Reason
and Antiquity seem to allow, could not be finish’d and brought to
Maturity, nor afterwards preserv’d and nourish’d, upon any other
Supposition.
LONGEVITY is the last Character to be consider’d, and as inconsistent
with the present State of the Earth as any other. There are many Things
in the Story of the first Ages that seem strange, but nothing so
prodigy-like as the long Lives of those Men; that their Houses of Clay
should stand eight or nine hundred Years and upwards, and those we build
of the hardest Stone, or Marble, will not now last so long. This hath
excited the Curiosity of ingenious and learned Men in all Ages, to
enquire after the possible Causes of that Longevity; and if it had been
always in Conjunction with Innocency of Life and Manners, and expir’d
when that expir’d, we might have thought it some peculiar Blessing or
Reward attending that; but it was common to good and bad, and lasted
till the Deluge, whereas Mankind was degenerate long before. Amongst
Natural Causes, some have imputed it to the Sobriety and Simplicity of
their Diet and manner of Living in those Days, that they eat no Flesh,
and had not all those Provocations to Gluttony, which Wit and Vice have
since invented. This might have some Effect, but not possibly to that
Degree and Measure that we speak of. There are many Monastical Persons
now, that live Abstemiously all their Lives, and yet they think an
hundred Years a very great Age amongst them. Others have imputed it to
the Excellency of their Fruits, and some unknown Virtue in their Herbs
and Plants in those Days; but they may as well say nothing, as say that
which can neither be prov’d nor understood. It could not be either the
Quantity or Quality of their food that was the Cause of their long
Lives, for the Earth was said to be curst long before the Deluge, and
probably by that time was more barren and juiceless (for the generality)
than ours is now; yet we do not see that their Longevity decreas’d at
all, from the Beginning of the World to the Flood. _Methusalah_ was
_Noah_’s Grandfather but one intire Remove from the Deluge, and he liv’d
longer than any of his Fore-fathers. That Food that will nourish the
Parts, and keep us in Health, is also capable to keep us in long Life,
if there be no Impediments otherwise; for to continue Health is to
continue Life; as that Fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a Flame,
will preserve it as long as you please, if you add fresh Fewel, and no
external Causes hinder: Neither do we observe that in those Parts of the
present Earth, where People live longer than in others, that there is
any thing extraordinary in their Food; but that the Difference is
chiefly from the Air and the Temperateness of the Heavens; And if the
Antediluvians had not enjoy’d that Advantage in a peculiar manner, and
differently from what any Parts of the Earth do now, they would never
have seen seven, eight, or nine hundred Years go over their Heads,
though they had been nourish’d with _Nectar_ and _Ambrosia_.
OTHERS have thought that the long Lives of those Men of the old World
proceeded from the Strength of their _Stamina_, or first Principles of
their Bodies; which if they were now as strong in us, they think we
should still live as long as they did. This could not be the sole and
adequate Cause of their Longevity, as will appear both from History and
Reason. _Shem_, who was born before the Flood, and had in his Body all
the Virtue of the antediluvian _Stamina_ and Constitution, fell three
hundred Years short of the Age of his Fore-fathers, because the greatest
part of his Life was past after the Flood. That their _Stamina_ were
stronger than ours are, I am very ready to believe, and that their
Bodies were greater; and any Race of strong Men, living long in Health,
would have Children of a proportionable strong Constitution with
themselves; but then the Question is, how was this interrupted? We that
are their Posterity, why do not we inherit their long Lives? How was
this Constitution broken at the Deluge, and how did the _Stamina_ fail
so fast when that came? Why was there so great a _Crisis_ then and Turn
of Life, or why was that the Period of their Strength?
WE see this Longevity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood, and
after that it sunk by gentler degrees, but was still in Motion and
Declension till it was fixt at length before _David_’s time, _Psal. xc.
10._ (_call’d a Psalm of Moses_,) in that which hath been the common
Standard of Man’s Age ever since: As when some excellent Fruit is
transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil, it degenerates continually
till it comes to such a degree of Meanness as suits that Air and Soil,
and then it stands. That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden
from the Antediluvian Measure to the present, I impute it to the
remaining _Stamina_ of those first Ages, and the Strength of that
pristine Constitution which could not wear off but by degrees. We see
the _Blacks_ do not quit their Complexion immediately, by removing into
another Climate, but their Posterity changeth by little and little, and
after some Generations they become altogether like the People of the
Country where they are. Thus by the Change of Nature that happen’d at
the Flood, the unhappy Influence of the Air and unequal Seasons,
weaken’d by degrees the innate Strength of their Bodies, and the Vigour
of their Parts, which would have been capable to have lasted several
more hundreds of Years, if the Heavens had continued their Course as
formerly, or the Earth its Position. To conclude this particular, if any
think that the Antediluvian Longevity proceeded only from the _Stamina_,
or the meer Strength of their Bodies, and would have been so under any
Constitution of the Heavens, let ’em resolve themselves these Questions:
First, Why these _Stamina_, or this Strength of Constitution fail’d?
Secondly, Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge?
Thirdly, Why in such Proportions as it hath done since the Deluge? And
lastly, Why it hath stood so long immovable, and without any further
Diminution? Within the compass of five hundred Years they sunk from nine
hundred to ninety; and in the compass of more than three thousand Years
since, they have not sunk ten Years, or scarce any thing at all. Who
considers the Reasons of these Things, and the true Resolution of these
Questions, will be satisfied, that to understand the Causes of that
Longevity, something more must be consider’d than the Make and Strength
of their Bodies; which though they had been made as strong as the
_Behemoth_ or _Leviathan_, could not have lasted so many Ages, if there
had not been a particular Concurrence of external Causes, such as the
present State of Nature doth not admit of.
By this short Review of the three general Characters of _Paradise_ and
the Golden Age, we may conclude how little consistent they are with the
present Form and Order of the Earth. Who can pretend to assign any Place
or Region in this terraqueous Globe, Island or Continent, that is
capable of these Conditions, or that agrees either with the Descriptions
given by the ancient Heathens of their _Paradises_, or by the Christian
Fathers of Scripture _Paradise_? But where then, will you say, must we
look for it, if not upon this Earth? This puts us more into Despair of
finding it than ever; ’tis not above nor below, in the Air or in the
subterraneous Regions; No, doubtless ’twas upon the Surface of the
Earth, but of the Primitive Earth, whose Form and Properties, as they
were different from this, so they were such as made it capable of being
truly _Paradisiacal_, both according to the forementioned Characters,
and all other Qualities, and Privileges reasonably ascrib’d to
_Paradise_.