_The Place of Paradise cannot be determined from the Theory only,
nor from Scripture only. What the Sense of Antiquity was concerning
it, both as to the Jews and Heathens, and especially as to the
Christian Fathers. That they generally plac’d it out of this
Continent, in the southern Hemisphere._
WE have now prepared our Work for the last finishing Strokes; described
the first Earth, and compar’d it with the present; and not only the two
Earths, but in a good Measure the whole State and Oeconomy of those two
Worlds. It remains only to determine the Place of _Paradise_ in that
primæval Earth; I say, in that primæval Earth, for we have driven the
Point so far already, that the Seat of it could not be in the present
Earth, whose Form, Site, and Air, are so dispos’d, as could not consist
with the first and most indispensible Properties of _Paradise_: And
accordingly, we see with what ill Success our modern Authors have rang’d
over the Earth, to find a fit Spot of Ground to plant _Paradise_ in;
some would set it on the Top of an high Mountain, that it might have
good Air and fair Weather, as being above the Clouds, and the middle
Region; but then they were at a Loss for Water, which made a great Part
of the Pleasure and Beauty of that Place. Others therefore would seat it
in a Plain, or in a River-Island, that they might have Water enough; but
then it would be subject to the Injuries of the Air, and foul Weather at
the Seasons of the Year; from which, both Reason and all Authority have
exempted _Paradise_. ’Tis like seeking a perfect Beauty in a mortal
Body, there are so many Things required to it, as to Complexion,
Features, Proportions and Air, that they never meet all together in one
Person; neither can all the Properties of a terrestrial _Paradise_ ever
meet together in one Place, tho’ never so well chosen, in this present
Earth.
BUT in the primæval Earth, which we have described, ’tis easy to find a
Seat that had all those Beauties and Conveniencies. We have every where
thro’ the temperate Climates, a clear and constant Air, a fruitful Soil,
pleasant Waters, and all the general Characters of _Paradise_; so that
the Trouble will be rather in that Competition, what Part or Region to
pitch upon in particular. But to come as near it as we can, we must
remember in the first Place, how that Earth was divided into two
Hemispheres, distant and separated from one another, not by an imaginary
Line, but by a real Boundary that could not be past; so as the first
Inquiry will be, in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of
_Paradise_. To answer this only according to our Theory, I confess, I
see no natural Reason or Occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more
than in another; I see no Ground of Difference or Pre-eminence, that one
had above the other; and I am apt to think, that depended rather upon
the Will of God, and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this
Earth, than upon any natural Incapacity in one of these two Regions more
than in the other, for planting in it the Garden of God. Neither doth
Scripture determine, with any Certainty, either Hemisphere for the Place
of it; for when ’tis said to be in _Eden_, or to be the Garden of
_Eden_, ’tis no more than the Garden of _Pleasure_ or _Delight_, as the
Word signifies: And even the _Septuagint_, who render this Word _Eden_,
as a proper Name twice, (_Gen._ ii. _ver._ 8, & 10.) do in the same
Story render it twice as a common Name, signifying τρυφὴ _Pleasure_,
(_Chap._ ii. 15. and _Chap._ iii. 24.) and so they do accordingly render
it in _Ezekiel_, (_Chap._ xxxi. 9, 16, 18.) where this Garden of _Eden_
is spoken of again. Some have thought that the Word _Mekiddim_, (_Gen._
ii. 8.) was to be render’d _in the East_, or _Eastward_, as we read it,
and therefore determin’d the Site of _Paradise_; but ’tis only the
_Septuagint_ translate it so; all the other _Greek_ Versions, and St.
_Jerome_, the _Vulgate_, the _Chaldee_ Paraphrase, and the _Syriack_
render it _from the Beginning_, or _in the Beginning_, or to that
Effect. And we that do not believe the _Septuagint_ to have been
infallible, or inspir’d, have no Reason to prefer their single Authority
above all the rest. Some also think the Place of _Paradise_ may be
determined by the four Rivers that are named, as belonging to it, and
the Countries they ran through; but the Names of those Rivers are to me
uncertain, and two of them altogether unintelligible. Where are there
four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head, as these are said
to have done, either at the Entrance or Issue of the Garden? ’Tis true,
if you admit our _Hypothesis_, concerning the Fraction and Disruption of
the Earth at the Deluge, then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as
they were before; the general Source is chang’d, and their Channels are
all broke up; but if you do not admit such a Dissolution of the Earth,
but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool, after it
had once cover’d the Surface of the Earth, I do not see why it should
make any great Havock or Confusion in it; and they that go that Way, are
therefore the more oblig’d to shew us still, the Rivers of _Paradise_.
Several of the Ancients, as we shall shew hereafter, suppos’d these four
Rivers to have their heads in the other Hemisphere; and if so, the Seat
of _Paradise_ might be there too. But let them first agree among
themselves concerning these Rivers, and the Countries they run thro’,
and we will undertake to shew that there cannot be any such in this
Continent.
SEEING then neither the Theory doth determine, nor Scripture, where the
Place of _Paradise_ was, nor in whether Hemisphere, we must appeal to
Antiquity, or the Opinions of the Ancients; for I know no other Guide
but one of these three, Scripture, Reason, and ancient Tradition; and
where the two former are silent, it seems very reasonable to consult the
third. And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough, we will
consider what the _Jews_, what the _Heathens_, and what the _Christian_
Fathers have said, or determin’d, concerning the Seat of _Paradise_. The
_Jews_ and _Hebrew_ Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere, but betwixt
both, under the Æquinoctial, as you may see plainly in _Abravanel_,
_Manasses_, _Ben-Israel_, _Maimonides_, _Eben Ezra_, and others. But the
Reason why they carried it no further than the Line, is, because they
suppos’d it certain, as _Eben Ezra_ tells us, that the Days and Nights
were always equal in _Paradise_, and they did not know how that could
be, unless it stood under the Æquinoctial. But we have shewn another
Method, wherein that perpetual Equinox came to pass, and how it was
common to all the Parts and Climates of that Earth, which if they had
been aware of, and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly
uninhabitable, having remov’d their _Paradise_ thus far from Home, they
would probably have remov’d it a little further into the temperate
Climates of the other Hemisphere.
THE ancient Heathens, Poets and Philosophers, had the Notion of
_Paradise_, or rather of several _Paradises_ in the Earth; and ’tis
remarkable, that they plac’d them generally, if not all of them, out of
this Continent; in the Ocean, or beyond it, or in another Orb or
Hemisphere. The Garden of the _Hesperides_, the fortunate _Islands_, the
_Elysian Fields_, _Ogygia_ and _Toprabane_, as it is describ’d by
_Diodorus Siculus_, with others such like; which as they were all
characteriz’d like so many _Paradises_, so they were all seated out of
our Continent, by their Geography and Descriptions of them.
THUS far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere, or to some
Place beyond the Bounds of our Continent for the Seat of _Paradise_: But
that which we are most to depend upon in this Affair, is Christian
Antiquity, the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument.
And we may safely say in the first Place, negatively, that none of the
Christian Fathers, _Latin_ or _Greek_, ever plac’d _Paradise_ in
_Mesopotamia_; that is a Conceit and Invention of some modern Authors,
which have been much encourag’d of late, because it gave Men Ease and
Rest, as to further Enquiries, in an Argument they could not well
manage. _Secondly_, We may affirm, that none of the Christian Fathers
have plac’d _Paradise_ in any determinate Region of our Continent,
_Asia_, _Africk_, or _Europe_. I have read of one or two Authors, I
think, that fancied _Paradise_ to have been at _Jerusalem_; but ’twas a
mere Fancy, that no Body regarded or pursu’d. The Controversy amongst
the Fathers concerning _Paradise_ was quite another Thing from what it
is now of late: They disputed and controverted, whether _Paradise_ was
corporeal or intellectual only, and allegorical; this was the grand
Point amongst them. Then of those that thought it corporeal, some plac’d
it high in the Air, some inaccessible, by Desarts or Mountains, and many
beyond the Ocean, or in another World; and in these chiefly consisted
the Differences and Diversity of Opinions amongst them; nor do we find
that they nam’d any particular Place or Country in the known Parts of
the Earth for the Seat of _Paradise_, or that one contested for one Spot
of Ground, and another for another, which is the vain Temerity of modern
Authors; as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where _Paradise_
stood, or could set their Foot upon the Centre of the Garden. These have
corrupted and misrepresented the Notion of our _Paradise_, just as some
Modern Poets have the Notion of the _Elysian_ Fields, which _Homer_ and
the Ancients plac’d remote, on the Extremities of the Earth, and these
would make a little green Meadow in _Campania Felix_ to be the fam’d
_Elysium_.
Thus much concerning the Fathers, negatively; but to discover as far as
we can, what their positive Assertions were in this Argument, we may
observe, that tho’ their Opinions be differently exprest, they generally
concenter in this, that the _Southern Hemisphere_ was the Seat of
_Paradise_. This, I say, seems manifestly to be the Sense of Christian
Antiquity and Tradition, so far as there is anything definitive in the
Remains we have upon that Subject. Some of the Fathers did not believe
_Paradise_ to be corporeal and local, and those are to be laid aside in
the first Place, as to this Point; others that thought it local, did not
determine any thing (as most of them indeed did not) concerning the
particular Place of it; but the rest that did, tho’ they have exprest
themselves in various Ways, and under various Forms; yet, upon a due
Interpretation, they all meet in one common and general Conclusion, that
_Paradise_ was seated beyond the Æquinoctial, or in the other
Hemisphere.
AND to understand this aright, we must reflect in the first Place, upon
the Form of the primæval Earth, and of the two Hemispheres of which it
consisted, altogether incommunicable one with another, by reason of the
Torrid Zone betwixt them; so as those two Hemispheres were then as two
distinct Worlds, or distinct Earths, that had no Commerce with one
another. And this Notion, or Tradition, we find among Heathen Authors,
as well as Christian; this opposite Earth being called by them
_Antichthon_, and its Inhabitants _Antichthones_: For those Words
comprehend both the _Antepodes_ and _Anœci_, or all beyond the Line, as
is manifest from their best Authors, as _Achilles_, _Tatius_, and _Cæsar
Germanicus_, upon _Aratus_, _Probus Grammaticus_, _Censorinus_,
_Pomponius Mela_, and _Pliny_. And these were called another World, and
look’d upon as another Stock and Race of Mankind, as appears from
_Cicero_ and _Macrobius_, (_Somn. Scip._) But as the latter Part was
their Mistake, so the former is acknowledged by Christian Authors, as
well as others; and particularly St. _Clement_, in his Epistle to the
_Corinthians_, mentions a _World_, or _Worlds beyond the Ocean subject
to divine Providence, and the great Lord of Nature as well as ours_.
This Passage of St. _Clement_ is also cited by St. _Jerome_, in his
Commentary upon _Eph. ii. 2._ and by _Origen Periarchon_, (_Lib. 2. c.
3._) where the Inhabitants of that other World are call’d
_Antichthones_.
I MAKE this Remark in the first Place, that we may understand the true
Sense and Importance of those Phrases and Expressions amongst the
Ancients, when they say _Paradise_ was in _another World_. Which are not
to be so understood, as if they thought _Paradise_ was in the Moon, or
in _Jupiter_, or hung above like a Cloud or a Meteor, they were not so
extravagant; but that _Paradise_ was in another Hemisphere, which was
call’d _Antichthon_, another _Earth_, or another _World_ from ours; and
justly reputed so, because of an Impossibility of Commerce or
Intercourse betwixt their respective Inhabitants. And this Remark being
premis’d, we will now distribute the Christian Authors and Fathers, that
have deliver’d their Opinion concerning the Place of _Paradise_, into
three or four Ranks or Orders; and tho’ they express themselves
differently, you will see, when duly examin’d and expounded, they all
conspire and concur in the foremention’d Conclusion, _That_ the Seat of
_Paradise_ was in the other Hemisphere.
IN the first Rank then we will place and reckon those that have set
_Paradise_ in another _World_, or in another _Earth_; seeing, according
to the foregoing Explication, that is the same thing as to affirm it
seated beyond the Torrid Zone in the other Hemisphere. In this Number
are _Ephrem Syrus_, _Moses Bar Cepha_, _Tatianus_, and of latter Date,
_Jacobus de Valentia_. To these are to be added again such Authors as
say, that _Adam_, when he was turn’d out of _Paradise_, was brought into
_our Earth_, or into our Region of the Earth; for this is tantamount
with the former; and this seems to be the Sense of St. _Jerome_ in
several Places against _Joviniam_, as also of _Constantine_, in his
_Oration_ in _Eusebius_, and is positively asserted by _Sulpitius
Severus_. And lastly, Those Authors that represent _Paradise_ as remote
from our World, and inaccessible; so St. _Austin_, _Procopius Gazæus_,
_Beda_, _Strabus Fuldensis_, _Historia Scholiastica_, and others; these,
I say, pursue the same Notion of Antiquity; for what is remote from our
World, (that is, from our Continent, as we before explain’d it) is to be
understood to be that _Antichthon_, (Οἱκουμένη) or Anti-hemisphere,
which the Ancients oppos’d to ours.
ANOTHER Set of Authors, that interpret the _Flaming Sword_ that guarded
_Paradise_ to be the _Torrid Zone_, do plainly intimate, that _Paradise_
in their Opinion lay beyond the Torrid Zone, or in the Anti-hemisphere;
and thus _Tertullian_ interprets the Flaming Sword, and in such Words as
fully confirm our Sense: _Paradise_, he says, _by the Torrid Zone, as by
a Wall of Fire, was sever’d from the Communication and Knowledge of our
World_. It lay then on the other Side of this Zone. And St. _Cyprian_,
or the ancient Author that passeth under his Name, in his Comment upon
_Genesis_, expresseth himself to the same Effect; so also St. _Austin_
and _Isidore Hispalensis_ are thought to interpret it: And _Aquinas_,
who makes _Paradise_ inaccessible, gives this Reason for it, _Propter
vehementiam æstus in locis intermediis ex propinquitate Solis, & hoc
significatur per Flammeum Gladium_: _Because of that vehement Heat in
the Parts betwixt us and that, arising from the Nearness of the Sun, and
this is signified by the Flaming Sword_. And this Interpretation of the
_Flaming Sword_ receives a remarkable Force and Emphasis from our Theory
and Description of the primæval Earth, for there the Torrid Zone was as
a Wall of Fire indeed, or a Region of Flame, which none could pass or
subsist in, no more than in a Furnace.
THERE is another Form of Expression amongst the Ancients concerning
_Paradise_, which if decyphered, is of the same Force and Signification
with this we have already instanc’d in: They say sometimes, _Paradise_
was _beyond the Ocean_, or that the Rivers of _Paradise_ came from
beyond the Ocean. This is of the same Import with the former Head, and
points still at the other Hemisphere; for, as we noted before, some of
them fixt their _Antichthon_ and _Antichthones_ beyond the Ocean; that
is, since there was an Ocean; since the Form of the Earth was chang’d,
and the Torrid Zone became habitable, and consequently could not be a
Boundary or Separation, betwixt the two Worlds. Wherefore, as some run
still upon the old Division by the Torrid Zone, others took the new
Division by the Ocean. Which Ocean they suppos’d to lie from East to
West betwixt the Tropicks; as may be seen in ancient Authors, _Geminus_,
_Herodotus_, _Cicero de republica_, and _Clemens Romanus_, whom we cited
before. St. _Austin_ (_De Civ. Dei, lib. 16. c. 9._) also speaks upon
the same Supposition, when he would confute the Doctrine of the
_Antipodes_, or _Antichthones_; and _Macrobius_, I remember, makes it an
Argument of Providence, that the Sun and the Planets, in what Part of
their Course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks, have still the
Ocean under them, that they may be cool’d and nourish’d by its Moisture.
They thought the Sea, like a Girdle, went round the Earth, and the
temperate Zones on either Side were the habitable Regions, whereof this
was called the _Oicoumene_, and the other _Antichthon_.
THIS being observ’d, ’tis not material whether their Notion was true or
false, it shews us what their Meaning was, and what Part of the Earth
they design’d, when they spoke of any Thing beyond the Ocean; namely,
that they meant beyond the Line, in the other Hemisphere or in the
_Antichthon_; and accordingly, when they say _Paradise_, or the
Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean, they say the same Thing
in other Terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited. In _Moses
Bar Cepha_ above-mention’d, we find a Chapter upon this Subject,
_Quomodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terra in hanc terram._
_How Mankind past out of that Earth or Continent, where Paradise was,
into that where we are_. Namely how they past the Ocean, _that lay
betwixt them_, as the Answer there given explains it. And so _Ephrem
Syrus_ is cited often in that Treatise, placing _Paradise_ beyond the
Ocean. The _Essenes_ also, who were the most Philosophick Sect of the
_Jews_, plac’d _Paradise_, according to _Josephus_, beyond the Ocean,
under a perfect Temperature of Air. And that Passage in _Eusebius_, in
the Oration of _Constantine_, being corrected and restor’d to the true
reading, represents _Paradise_, in like manner, as in another Continent,
from whence _Adam_ was brought after his Transgression, into this. And
lastly, there are some Authors, whose Testimony and Authority may
deserve to be consider’d, not for their own Antiquity, but because they
are professedly Transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions; such as
_Strabus_, _Comestor_, and the like, who are known to give this Account
or Report of _Paradise_ from the Ancients, that it was _interposito
Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel a Zona nostra habitabili secretus_, _separated
from our Orb or Hemisphere, by the Interposition of the Ocean_.
IT is also observable, that many of the Ancients that took _Tigris_,
_Euphrates_, _Nile_ and _Ganges_, for the Rivers of _Paradise_, said
that those Heads or Fountains of them, which we have in our Continent,
are but their _capita secunda_, their second Sources, and that their
first Sources were in another Orb where _Paradise_ was; and thus _Hugo
de Sancto Victore_ says, _Sanctos communiter sensisse_, That the Holy
Men of old were generally of that Opinion. To this Sense also _Moses Bar
Cepha_ often expresseth himself; as also _Epiphanius_, _Procopius
Gazæus_, and _Severianus_ in _Catena_. Which Notion amongst the
Ancients, concerning the Trajection or Passage of the paradisiacal
Rivers under Ground, or under Sea, from one Continent into another, is
to me, I confess, unintelligible, either in the first or second Earth;
but however it discovers their Sense and Opinion of the Seat of
_Paradise_, that it was not to be sought for in _Asia_ or in _Africa_,
where those Rivers rise to us; but in some remoter Parts of the World,
where they suppos’d their first Sources to be.
THIS is a short Account of what the Christian Fathers have left us
concerning the Seat of _Paradise_; and the Truth is, ’tis but a short
and broken account; yet ’tis no wonder it should be so, if we consider,
as we noted before, that several of them did not believe _Paradise_ to
be local and corporeal; others that did believe it so, yet did not offer
to determine the Place of it, but left that Matter wholly untouch’d and
undecided: and the rest that did speak to that Point, did it commonly
both in general Terms, and in Expressions that were disguis’d, and
needed Interpretation; but all these Differences and Obscurities of
Expression, you see, when duly stated and expounded, may signify one and
the same Thing, and terminate all in this common Conclusion, _That
Paradise_ was without our Continent, according to the general Opinion
and Tradition of Antiquity. And I do not doubt but the Tradition would
have been both more express and more universal, if the Ancients had
understood Geography better; for those of the Ancients that did not
admit or believe that there were _Antipodes_ or _Antichthones_, as
_Lactantius_, St. _Austin_, and some others; these could not join in the
common Opinion about the Place of _Paradise_, because they thought there
was no Land, nor any thing habitable ἔξω τὴς οἱκουμένες, or beside this
Continent. And yet St. _Austin_ was so cautious, that as he was bounded
on the one Hand by his false _Idea_ of the Earth, that he could not join
with Antiquity as to the Place of _Paradise_; so on the other Hand, he
had that Respect for it, that he would not say any thing to the
contrary; therefore being to give his Opinion, he says only, _Terrestrem
esse Paradisum, & locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum_:
_That it is somewhere upon the Earth, but the Place of it very remote
from the Knowledge of Men_.
AND as their Ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one Reason why the
Doctrine of _Paradise_ was so broken and obscure, so another Reason why
it is much more so at present is, because the chief ancient Books writ
upon that Subject are lost. _Ephrem Syrus_ who liv’d in the fourth
Century, writ a Commentary _in Genesin sine de Ortu rerum_, concerning
the Origin of the Earth; and by those Remains that are cited from it, we
have reason to believe that it contained many Things remarkable
concerning the first Earth, and concerning _Paradise_. _Tertullian_ also
writ a Book _de Paradiso_, which is wholly lost; and we see to what
Effect it would have been, by his making the Torrid Zone to be the
_Flaming Sword_, and the Partition betwixt this Earth and _Paradise_,
which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from
one another, (_Cont. Marc. lib. 2. c. 2. c. 5._) The most ancient Author
that I know upon this Subject, at least of those that writ of it
literally, is _Moses Bar Cepha_ a _Syrian_ Bishop, who liv’d about 700
Years since, and his Book is translated into _Latin_ by that learned and
judicious Man _Andreas Masius_. _Bar Cepha_ writes upon the same Views
of _Paradise_ that we have here presented, that it was beyond the Ocean,
in another Track of Land, or another Continent from that which we
inhabit: As appears from the very Titles of his 8th, 10th, and 14th
Chapters. But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the Form
of the Earth; for he seems to have fancied the Earth plain, (not only as
oppos’d to rough and mountainous, for so it was plain; but as oppos’d to
spherical) and the Ocean to have divided it in two Parts, an interior,
and an exterior, and in that exterior Part was _Paradise_. Such
Allowances must often be made for Geographical Mistakes, in examining
and understanding the Writings of the Ancients. The rest of the _Syrian_
Fathers, as well as _Ephrem_ and _Bar Cepha_, incline to the same
Doctrine of _Paradise_, and seem to have retain’d more of the ancient
notions concerning it, than the _Greek_ and _Latin_ Fathers have; and
yet there is in all some Fragments of this Doctrine, and but Fragments
in the best.
WE might add in the last Place, that as the most ancient Treatises
concerning _Paradise_ are lost, so also the ancient _Glosses_ and
_Catenae_ upon Scripture, where we might have found the Traditions and
Opinions of the Ancients upon this Subject, are many of them either lost
or unpublish’d; and upon this Consideration, we did not think it
improper to cite some Authors of small Antiquity, but such as have
transcrib’d several Things out of ancient Manuscript-glosses into their
Commentaries. They living however before Printing was invented, or
Learning well restor’d, and before the Reformation. I add that also,
_before the Reformation_, for since that Time the Protestant Authors
having lessen’d the Authority of Traditions, the pontifical Doctors
content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful
or necessary, left by multiplying others that were but Matter of
Curiosity, they should bring the first into Question, and render the
whole Doctrine of Traditions more dubious and exceptionable; and upon
this Account, there are some Authors that writ an Age or two before the
Reformation, that have with more Freedom told us the Tenets and
Traditions of the Ancients in these Speculations, that are but
collateral to Religion, than any have done since.
AND I must confess I am apt to think, that what remains concerning the
Doctrine of _Paradise_, and the primæval Earth, is in a good Measure
traditional; for one may observe, that those that treat upon these
Subjects, quote the true Opinions, and tell you some of the Ancients
held so and so; as that _Paradise_ was in another Earth, or higher than
this Earth; that there were no Mountains before the Flood, nor any Rain,
and such like; yet they do not name those ancient Authors that held
these Opinions; which makes me apt to believe, either that they were
convey’d by traditional Communication from one to another, or that there
were other Books extant upon those Subjects, or other Glosses, than what
are now known.
FINALLY, To conclude this Discourse concerning the Seat of _Paradise_,
we must mind you again upon what Basis it stands. We declar’d freely,
that we could not by our Theory alone determine the particular Place of
it, only by that we are assur’d, that it was in the primæval Earth, and
not in the present; but in what Region, or in whether Hemisphere of that
Earth it was seated, we cannot define from Speculation only. ’Tis true,
if we hold fast to that Scripture-conclusion, That all Mankind rose from
one Head, and from one and the same Stock and Lineage, (which doth not
seem to be according to the Sentiments of the Heathens) we must suppose
they were born in one Hemisphere, and after some Time translated into
the other, or a Colony of them: But this still doth not determine in
whether of the two they begun, and were first seated before their
Translation; and I am apt to think that depended rather, as we noted
before, upon the Divine Pleasure, and the Train of Affairs that was to
succeed, than upon natural Causes and Differences. Some of the Ancients,
I know, made both the Soil and the Stars more noble in the southern
Hemisphere, than in ours; but I do not see any Proof or Warrant for it;
wherefore, laying aside all natural Topicks, we are willing, in this
Particular, to refer our selves wholly to the Report and Majority of
Votes among the Ancients; who yet do not seem to me to lay much Stress
upon the Notion of a particular and topical Paradise, and therefore use
general and remote Expressions concerning it. And finding no Place for
it in this Continent, they are willing to quit their Hands of it, by
placing it in a Region somewhere far off, and inaccessible. This,
together with the old Tradition, that Paradise was in another Earth,
seems to me to give an Account of most of their Opinions concerning the
Seat of Paradise, and that they were generally very uncertain where to
fix it.