_Several Incroachments upon natural Providence, or
Misrepresentations of it, and false Methods of Contemplation. A true
Method propos’d, and a true Representation of the Universe. The
Mundane Idea, and the universal System of Providence. Several
subordinate Systems. That of our Earth and sublunary World. The
Course and Periods of it. How much of this is already treated of,
and what remains. The Conclusion._
WE have set Bounds to Nature in the foregoing Chapter, and plac’d her
Author and Governor upon his Throne, to give Laws to her Motions, and to
direct and limit her Power in such Ways and Methods as are most for his
Honour. Let us now consider Nature under the Conduct of Providence, or
consider _Natural Providence_, and the Extent of it; and as we were
cautious before not to give too much Power or Greatness to Nature,
consider’d apart from Providence; so we must be careful now, under this
second Consideration, not to contract her Bounds too much; lest we
should, by too mean and narrow Thoughts of the Creation, eclipse the
Glory of its Author, whom we have so lately own’d as a Being infinitely
Perfect.
AND to use no further Introduction, in the _first Place_, we must not by
any Means admit or imagine, that all Nature, and this great Universe,
was made only for the sake of Man, the meanest of all intelligent
Creatures that we know of; nor that this little Planet, where we sojourn
for a few Days, is the only habitable Part of the Universe: These are
Thoughts so groundless and unreasonable in themselves, and also so
derogatory to the infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness of the first
Cause, that as they are absurd in Reason, so they deserve far better to
be mark’d and censur’d for Heresies in Religion, than many Opinions that
have been censur’d for such in former Ages. How is it possible that it
should enter into the Thoughts of vain Man to believe himself the
principal Part of God’s Creation, or that all the rest was ordain’d for
him, for his Service or Pleasure? Man, whose Follies we laugh at every
Day, or else complain of them; whose Pleasures are Vanity, and his
Passions stronger than his Reason? who sees himself every Way weak and
impotent, hath no power over external Nature, little over himself;
cannot execute so much as his own good Resolutions, mutable, irregular,
prone to Evil. Surely, if we made the least Reflection upon our selves
with Impartiality, we should be asham’d of such an arrogant Thought. How
few of these Sons of Men, for whom, they say, all Things were made, are
the Sons of Wisdom? How few find the Paths of Life? They spend a few
Days in Folly and Sin, and then go down to the Regions of Death and
Misery. And is it possible to believe that all Nature, and all
Providence, are only or principally for their sake? Is it not a more
reasonable Character or Conclusion which the Prophet hath made, _Surely
every Man is Vanity_? Man that comes into the World at the Pleasure of
another, and goes out by an hundred Accidents; his Birth and Education
generally determine his Fate here, and neither of those are in his own
Power; his Wit also is as uncertain as his Fortune; he hath not the
moulding of his own Brain, however a Knock on the Head makes him a Fool,
stupid as the Beasts of the Field; and a little Excess of Passion or
Melancholy makes him worse, Mad and Frantick. In his best Senses he is
shallow, and of little Understanding; and in nothing more blind and
ignorant than in Things sacred and divine; he falls down before a Stock
or a Stone, and says, Thou art my God; he can believe Nonsense and
Contradictions, and make it his Religion to do so. And is this the great
Creature which God hath made _by the Might of his Power, and for the
Honour of his Majesty_? Upon whom all Things must wait, to whom all
Things must be subservient? Methinks we have noted Weaknesses and
Follies enough in the Nature of Man; this need not be added as the Top
and Accomplishment, _That with all these he is so vain as to think that
all the rest of the World was made for his sake._
AND as due Humility and the Consideration of our own Meanness ought to
secure us from any such vain Opinion of our selves, so the Perfection of
other Beings ought to give us more Respect and Honour for them. With
what Face can we pretend that Creatures far superior to us, and more
excellent both in Nature and Condition, should be made for our Sake and
Service? How preposterous would it be to ascribe such a thing to our
Maker, and how intolerable a Vanity in us to affect it? We that are next
to the Brutes that perish, by a sacrilegious Attempt would make our
selves more considerable than the highest Dignities. It is thought to
have been the Crime of _Lucifer_, who was thrown down from Heaven to
Hell, that he affected an Equality with the Almighty; and to affect to
be next to the Almighty is a Crime next to that. We have no Reason to
believe but that there are, at least, as many Orders of Beings above us,
as there are Ranks of Creatures below us; there is a greater Distance
sure betwixt us and God Almighty, than there is betwixt us and the
meanest Worm; and yet we should take it very ill, if the Worms of the
Earth should pretend that we were made for them. But to pass from the
invisible World to the visible and corporeal——
WAS that made only for our sake? King _David_ was more wise, and more
just both to God and Man, in his viiith _Psalm_, where he says, _He
wonders, when he considers the Heavens, that the Maker of them could
think on Man_. He truly supposes the celestial Bodies, and the
Inhabitants of them, much more considerable than we are, and reckons up
only terrestrial Things as put in subjection to Man. Can we then be so
fond as to imagine all the corporeal Universe made for our Use? ’Tis not
the millioneth Part of it that is known to us, much less useful; we can
neither reach with our Eye, nor our Imagination, those Armies of Stars
that lie far and deep in the boundless Heavens. If we take a good Glass,
we discover innumerable more Stars in the Firmament than we can with our
single Eye; and yet if you take a second Glass, better than the first,
that carries the Sight to a greater Distance, you see more still lying
beyond the other; and a third Glass that pierceth further, still makes
new Discoveries of Stars; and so forwards, indefinitely and
inexhaustedly for any Thing we know, according to the Immensity of the
divine Nature and Power. Who can reckon up the Stars of the Galaxy, or
direct us in the Use of them? And can we believe that those and all the
rest were made for us? Of those few Stars that we enjoy, or that are
visible to the Eye, there is not a tenth Part that is really useful to
Man; and no doubt if the principal End of them had been our Pleasure or
Conveniency, they would have been put in some better Order in respect of
the Earth. They lie carelessly scatter’d, as if they had been sown in
the Heaven, like seed, by handfuls; and not by a skilful Hand neither.
What a beautiful Hemisphere they would have made, if they had been
plac’d in Rank and Order; if they had been all dispos’d into regular
Figures, and the little ones set with due Regard to the greater, then
all finish’d and made up into one fair Piece or great Composition,
according to the Rules of Art and Symmetry; what a surprizing Beauty
this would have been to the Inhabitants of the Earth? What a lovely Roof
to our little World? This indeed might have given one some Temptation to
have thought that they had been all made for us; but lest any such vain
Imagination should now enter into our Thoughts, Providence (besides more
important Reasons) seems on Purpose to have left them under that
Negligence or Disorder, which they appear in to us.
THE second Part of this Opinion supposeth this Planet, where we live, to
be the only habitable Part of the Universe; and this is a natural
Consequence of the former: If all Things were made to serve us, why
should any more be made than what is useful to us? But ’tis only our
Ignorance of the System of the World, and of the Grandeur of the Works
of God, that betrays us to such narrow Thoughts. (_See the Lat. Treat.
lib. 1. c. 10. p. 108, 109_, _&c._) If we do but consider what this
Earth is, both for Littleness and Deformity, and what its Inhabitants
are, we shall not be apt to think that this miserable Atom hath
engross’d and exhausted all the divine Favours, and all the Riches of
his Goodness, and of his Providence. But we will not enlarge upon this
Part of the Opinion, lest it should carry us too far from the Subject,
and it will fall of its own Accord, with the former. Upon the whole we
may conclude, that it was only the sublunary World that was made for the
sake of Man, and not the great Creation, either material or
intellectual; and we cannot admit or affirm any more without manifest
Injury, Depression, and Misrepresentation of Providence, as we may be
easily convinc’d from these four Heads; _The_ Meanness of Man and of
this Earth; _The_ Excellency of other Beings; _The_ Immensity of the
Universe, and the infinite Perfection of the first Cause. Which I leave
to your further Meditation, and pass on to the second Rule concerning
natural Providence.
_In the second Place_, then, If we would have a fair View and right
Apprehensions of natural Providence, we must not cut the Chains of it
too short, by having recourse without Necessity, either to the first
Cause, in explaining the Origins of Things; or to Miracles, in
explaining particular Effects. This, I say, breaks the Chains of natural
Providence, when it is done without Necessity; that is, when Things are
otherwise intelligible from second Causes. Neither is any Thing gain’d
by it to God Almighty; for ’tis but as the Proverb says, _To rob Peter
to pay Paul_; to take so much from his ordinary Providence, and place it
to his extraordinary. When a new Religion is brought into the World,
’tis very reasonable and decorous that it should be usher’d in with
Miracles, as both the _Jewish_ and _Christian_ were, but afterwards
Things return into their Channel and do not change or overflow again but
upon extraordinary Occasions or Revolutions. The Power _Extraordinary_
of God is to be accounted very sacred, not to be touch’d or expos’d for
our Pleasure or Conveniency; but I am afraid we often make use of it
only to conceal our own Ignorance, or to save us the Trouble of
inquiring into natural Causes. Men are generally unwilling to appear
ignorant, especially those that make Profession of Knowledge; and when
they have not Skill enough to explain some particular Effect in a Way of
Reason, they throw it upon the first Cause, as able to bear all; and so
placing it to that Account, they excuse themselves, and save their
Credit; for all Men are equally wise, if you take away second Causes; as
we are all of the same Colour, if you take away the Light.
BUT to state this Matter, and see the Ground of this Rule more
distinctly, we must observe and consider, That _the Course of Nature is
truly the Will of God_; (_See Book 1. c. 8. at the End._) and, as I may
so say, his first Will; from which we are not to recede, but upon clear
Evidence and Necessity. And as in Matter of Religion, we are to follow
the known reveal’d Will of God, and not to trust to every Impulse or
Motion of Enthusiasm, as coming from the Divine Spirit, unless there be
evident Marks that it is supernatural, and cannot come from our own; so
neither are we, without Necessity, to quit the known and ordinary Will
and Power of God, establish’d in the Course of Nature, and fly to
supernatural Causes, or his extraordinary Will; for this is a kind of
Enthusiasm or Fanaticism, as well as the other: And no doubt that great
Prodigality and Waste of Miracles which some make, is no way to the
Honour of God or Religion. ’Tis true, the other Extream is worse than
this, for to deny all Miracles, is in effect to deny all Reveal’d
Religion; therefore due Measures are to be taken betwixt these two, so
as neither to make the Divine Power too mean and cheap, nor the Power of
Nature illimited and all-sufficient.
_In the third Place_, to make the Scenes of natural Providence
considerable, and the Knowledge of them satisfactory to the Mind, we
must take a true Philosophy, or the true Principles that govern Nature,
which are Geometrical and Mechanical. By these you discover the
Footsteps of the Divine Art and Wisdom, and trace the Progress of Nature
Step by Step, as distinctly as in artificial things, where we see how
the Motions depend upon one another, in what Order, and by what
Necessity. God made all Things in _Number_, _Weight_ and _Measure_,
which are Geometrical and Mechanical Principles; He is not said to have
made Things by _Forms_ and _Qualities_, or any Combination of Qualities,
but by these three Principles, which may be conceiv’d to express the
Subject of three Mathematical Sciences, Number, of _Arithmetick_;
Weight, of _Staticks_; and _Measure_ and Proportion, of _Geometry_: If
then all things were made according to these Principles, to understand
the Manner of their Construction and Composition, we must proceed in the
Search of them by the same Principles, and resolve them into these
again. Besides, the Nature of the Subject does direct us sufficiently;
for when we contemplate or treat of Bodies, and the material World, we
must proceed by the Modes of Bodies, and their real Properties, such as
can be represented either to Sense or Imagination, for these Faculties
are made for corporeal Things; but Logical Notions, when applied to
particular Bodies, are meer Shadows of them, without Light or Substance.
No Man can raise a Theory upon such Grounds, nor calculate any
Revolutions of Nature, nor render any Service, or invent any thing
useful in human Life. And accordingly we see, that for these many Ages,
that this dry Philosophy hath govern’d Christendom, it hath brought
forth no Fruit, produc’d nothing good to God or Man, to Religion or
human Society.
TO these true Principles of Philosophy, we must join also the true
System of the World. That gives Scope to our Thoughts, and rational
Grounds to work upon; but the vulgar System, or that which _Aristotle_
and others have propos’d, affords no Matter of Contemplation. All above
the Moon, according to him, is firm as Adamant, and as immutable; no
Change or Variation in the Universe, but in those little Removes that
happen here below, one Quality or Form shifting into another: There
would therefore be no great Exercise of Reason or Meditation in such a
World; no long Series of Providence: The Regions above being made of a
kind of immutable Matter, they would always remain in the same Form,
Structure, and Qualities: So as we might lock up that part of the
Universe as to any further Inquiries, and we should find it ten thousand
Years hence in the same Form and State wherein we left it. Then in this
sublunary World there would be but small Doings neither; Things would
lie in a narrow Compass, no great Revolution of Nature, no new Form of
the Earth, but a few Anniversary _Corruptions_ and _Generations_, and
that would be the short and the long of Nature, and of Providence,
according to _Aristotle_. But if we consider the Earth, as one of those
many Planets that move about the Sun, and the Sun as one of those
innumerable fix’d Stars that adorn the Universe, and are the Centers of
its greatest Motions; and all this subject to Fate and Change, to
Corruptions and Renovations: This opens a large Field for our Thoughts,
and gives a large Subject for the Exercise and Expansion of the Divine
Wisdom and Power, and for the Glory of his Providence.
_In the last Place_; Having thus prepar’d your Mind, and the Subject,
for the Contemplation of _Natural Providence_, do not content your self
to consider only the present Face of Nature, but look back into the
first _Sources_ of Things, into their more simple and original States;
and observe the Progress of Nature from one Form to another, through
various Modes and Compositions. For there is no single Effect, nor any
single State of Nature, how perfect soever, that can be such an Argument
and Demonstration of Providence, as a Period of Nature, or a Revolution
of several States consequential to one another; and in such an Order and
Dependance, that as they flow and succeed, they shall still be adjusted
to the Periods of the moral World; so as to be ready always to be
Ministers of the Divine Justice or Beneficence to Mankind. This shews
the manifold Riches of the Wisdom and Power of God in Nature. And this
may give us just Occasion to reflect again upon _Aristotle_’s System and
Method, which destroys natural Providence in this respect also; for he
takes the World as it is now, both for Matter and Form, and supposeth it
to have been in this Posture from all Eternity, and that it will
continue to Eternity in the same; so as all the great Turns of Nature,
and the principal Scenes of Providence in the natural World are quite
struck out; and we have but this one Scene for all, and a pitiful one
too, if compar’d with the infinite Wisdom of God, and the Depths of
Providence. We must take Things in their full Extent, and from their
Origins, to comprehend them well, and to discover the Mysteries of
Providence, both in the Causes and in the Conduct of them. That Method
which _David_ followed in the Contemplation of the Little World, or in
the Body of Man, we should also follow in the Great; take it in its
first Mass, in its tender Principles and Rudiments, and observe the
Progress of it to a compleat Form; in these first Stroaks of Nature are
the Secrets of her Art; the Eye must be plac’d in this Point to have a
right Prospect, and see her Works in a true Light. _David_ admires the
Wisdom of God in the Origin and Formation of his Body; _My Body_, says
he, _was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, curiously wrought
in the lower Parts of the Earth; thine Eyes did see my Substance being
yet imperfect, and in thy Book all my Members were written; which in
Continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them, or being
at first in no Form. How precious are thy Thoughts to me, O God! &c._
_Psal. cxxxix. 15, 16, 17._ This was the Subject of _David_’s,
Meditations, how his Body was wrought from a shapeless Mass into that
marvellous Composition which it had when fully fram’d; and this, he
says, was under the Eye of God all along, and the Model of it, as it
were, was design’d and delineated in the Book of Providence, according
to which, it was by Degrees fashion’d and wrought to Perfection. _Thine
Eyes did see my Substance yet being imperfect, in thy Book all my
Members were drawn, &c._ _Job_ also hath aptly express’d those first
Rudiments of the Body, or that little Chaos out of which it riseth;
_Hast thou not poured me out as Milk, and cruddled me like Cheese? Thou
hast cloathed me with Skin and Flesh, and fenced me with Bones and
Sinews, Job x. 10, 11._ Where he notes the first Matter and the last
Form of his Body, its compleat and most incompleat State. According to
these Examples we must likewise consider the greater Bodies of Nature,
the Earth and the sublunary World; we must go to the Origin of them, the
Seminal Mass, the Chaos out of which they rise; look upon the World
first as an Embryo World, without Form or Shape, and then consider how
its Members were fashion’d, how by degrees it was brought into that
Diversity of Parts and Regions which it consists of, with all their
Furniture, and with all their Ornaments. The _Idea_ of all which was
before-hand, according to _David_’s Expression, written in the Divine
Mind; and we partake of that Wisdom, according to our Capacity, in
seeing and admiring the Methods of it.
THESE seem to be necessary Preparatives or Directions to those that
would contemplate, with Profit, natural Providence, and the great Works
of God in the visible Creation. We consider’d Nature in the precedent
Chapter abstractly, and in her self; and now we consider her under the
Conduct of Providence, which we therefore call Natural Providence: And
as we have endeavour’d to remove those false Notions and Suppositions
that lay as Clouds upon her Face, so we must now endeavour to represent
her in a better Light, and in a fuller Beauty. By _Natural Providence_
therefore we understand, _the Form or Course of Universal Nature, as
actuated by the divine Power; with all the Changes, Periods, and
Vicissitudes that attend it, according to the Method and Establishment
made at first by the Author of it_. I said of _Universal Nature_,
through all the Orders of Beings in the intellectual World, and all the
Regions and Systems of Matter in the corporeal. For, having prov’d in
the foregoing Chapter, that there is an Author of Nature, a Being
infinitely perfect, by whose Power and Influence alone all finite
Natures exist and act, we have an assured Ground to conclude, that
nothing can come to pass, throughout the whole Creation, without the
Prescience and Permission of its Author; and as it is necessary to
suppose that there is an _Idea_ in the Divine Understanding of all the
Mass of Beings produc’d or created, according to the several Ranks and
Orders wherein they stand; so there is also an _Idea_ there, according
to which this great Frame moves, and all the Parts of it in Beauty and
Harmony.
AND these two Things, The _Essences_ of all Beings, and the Series of
their _Motions_, compose the MUNDANE IDEA, as I may so call it; or that
great all comprehensive Thought in the divine Understanding, which
contains the System of universal Providence, and the State of all Things
past, present, or to come. This glorious _Idea_ is the express Image of
the whole Creation, of all the Works of God, and the Disposition of
them: Here lie the Mysteries of Providence, as in their Original; the
successive Forms of all Nature; and herein, as in a Glass, may be view’d
all the Scenes of Time or Eternity. This is an Abyss of sacred Wisdom,
the exhausted Treasure of all Science, the Root of Truth, and Fountain
of intellectual Light; and in the clear and full Contemplation of this
is perfect Happiness, and a truly beatifick Vision.
BUT what concerns the intellectual World in this _Idea_, and the Orders
or Natures that compose it, is not our present Business to pursue; we
are to speak of the corporeal Universe, whereof we will make now a short
and general Survey, as it lies under Providence. The corporeal Universe,
how immense soever it be, and divided into innumerable Regions, may be
consider’d all as one System, made up of several subordinate Systems.
And there is also one immense Design of Providence co-extended with it,
that contains all the Fate, and all the Revolutions of this great Mass.
This, I say, is made up of several subordinate Systems, involving one
another, and comprehending one another, in greater and greater Orbs and
Compositions; and the Aggregate of all these is that which we call the
_Universe_. But what the Form of these Compositions is, and what the
Design of Providence that runs thro’ them all, and comprehends them all,
this is unsearchable, not only to humane Understanding, but even to
Angels and Archangels.
WHEREFORE leaving those greater Systems and Compositions of the
Universe, as Matter of our Admiration, rather than of our Knowledge;
there are two or three kinds of lesser Systems that are visible to us,
and bring us nearer to our Subject, and nearer home. _That_ of a fix’d
Star single; _That_ of a fix’d Star with its Planets, and _that_ of a
single Planet, primary or secondary. These three Systems we see and
enjoy more or less. No doubt there are fix’d Stars single, or that have
no Planets about them, as our Sun hath; nay ’tis probable, that at first
the whole Universe consisted only of such Globes of liquid Fire, with
Spheres about them, of pure Light and Æther: Earths are but the Dirt and
Skum of the Creation, and all Things were pure as they came at first out
of the Hands of God. But because we have nothing particular taught us,
either by the Light of Nature or Revelation, concerning the Providence
that governs these single Stars, of what Use they are to intellectual
Beings, how animated by them, what Diversity there is amongst those
æthereal Worlds, what Periods they have, what Changes or Vicissitudes
they are capable to undergo, because such Inquiries would seem too
remote, and carry us too far from our Subject, we leave these heavenly
Systems to the Enjoyment and Contemplation of higher and more noble
Creatures.
THE Sun, with all the Planets that move about him, and depend upon him,
make a good Sort of System; not considerable indeed, if compar’d with
the whole Universe, or some of the greater Compositions in it; but in
respect of us, the System of the Sun is of vast Extent: We cannot
measure the Greatness of his Kingdom, and his Dominion is without End.
The Distance from the highest Planet to the nearest fixt Star in the
Firmament is unmeasurable, and all this belongs to the Empire of the
Sun; besides the several Planets and their Orbs, which cast themselves
closer about his Body, that they may receive a warmer and stronger
Influence from him; for by him they may be said to _live_ and _move_.
But those vast Spaces that lie beyond these opaque Bodies, are Regions
of perpetual Light; one Planet may Eclipse the Sun to another, and one
Hemisphere of a Planet to the other Hemisphere makes Night and Darkness;
but nothing can eclipse the Sun, or intercept the Course of his Light to
these remote æthereal Regions; they are always luminous, and always pure
and serene. And if the worst and planetary Parts of his Dominions be
replenished with Inhabitants, we cannot suppose the better to lie as
Desarts unenjoy’d and uninhabited; his Subjects then must be numerous,
as well as his Dominions large; and in both respects this System of a
fixt Star, with its Planets, (of which kind we may imagin innumerable in
the Universe, besides this of the Sun, which is near and visible to us)
is of a noble Character and Order, being the Habitation of Angels and
glorified Spirits, as well as of mortal Men.
A planetary System is the last and lowest; and of these, no doubt, there
is great Variety, and great Differences; not only of primary and
secondary, or of the principal Planet, and its Moons or Attendants, but
also amongst Planets of the same Rank; for they may differ both in their
original Constitution, and according to the Form and State they are
under at present; of which sort of Differences we have noted some
amongst our Planets, (_Book. 1. chap. last, p. 113_, _&c._) tho’ they
seem to be all of much-what the same original Constitution. Besides,
according to external Circumstances, their Distance, Manner of Motion,
and Posture to the Sun, which is the Heart of the whole System, they
become different in many Things. And we may observe, that those leading
Differences, tho’ they seem little, draw after them innumerable others,
and so make a distinct Face of Nature, and a distinct World; which still
shews the Riches and Fecundity of divine Providence, and gives new
Matter of Contemplation to those that take Pleasure in studying the
Works and Ways of God. But leaving all other Planets, or planetary
Systems to our Meditations only, we must particularly consider our own.
HAVING therefore made this general Survey of the great Universe, run
through the boundless Regions of it, and with much ado found our Way
home to that little Planet where our Concerns lie, this Earth or
sublunary World, we must rest here at the End of our Course. And having
undertaken to give the general Theory of this Earth, to conclude the
present Treatise, we’ll reflect upon the whole Work, and observe what
Progress we have hitherto made in this Theory, and what remains to be
treated of hereafter. This Earth, tho’ it be a small Part or Particle of
the Universe, hath a distinct System of Providence belonging to it, or
an Order establisht by the Author of Nature for all its _Phænomena_
(natural or moral) throughout the whole Period of its Duration, and
every Interval of it; for, as there is nothing so great as to be above
the divine Care, so neither is there any thing so little as to be below
it. All the Changes of out World are fixt; How, or how often to be
destroy’d, and how renew’d; What different Faces of Nature, and what of
Mankind, in every Part of its Course; What new Scenes to adorn the
Stage, and what new Parts to be acted; What the Entrance, and what the
Consummation of all. Neither is there any sort of Knowledge more proper,
or of more importance to us that are the Inhabitants of this Earth, than
to understand this its natural and sacred History, as I may so call it,
both as to what is past, and what is to come. And as those greater
Volumes and Compositions of the Universe are proportion’d to the
Understanding of Angels and superior Beings, so these little Systems are
_Compendiums_ of the divine Wisdom more fitted to our Capacity and
Comprehension.
THE Providence of the Earth, as of all other Systems, consists of two
Parts, natural, and sacred or theological. I call that sacred or
theological that respects Religion, and the Dispensations of it; the
Government of the rational World, or of Mankind, whether under the Light
of Nature only, or of a Revelation? the Method and Terms of their
Happiness and Unhappiness in a future Life: The State, Oeconomy, and
Conduct of this, with all the Mysteries contain’d in it, we call
theological Providence; in the Head whereof stands the Soul of the
blessed _Messiah_, who is Lord of both Worlds, intellectual and
material. When we call the other Part of Providence _Natural_, we use
that Word in a restrain’d Sense, as respecting only the material World;
and accordingly this Part of Providence orders and superintends the
State of the Earth, the great Vicissitudes and Mutations of it; for we
must not imagin but that these are under the Eye of Providence, as well
as humane Affairs, or any Revolutions of States and Empires. Now seeing
both in the intellectual and corporeal World there are certain Periods,
Fulness of Time, and fixt Seasons, either for some great Catastrophe, or
some great Instauration; ’tis Providence that makes a due Harmony or
Synchronism betwixt these two, and measures out the concurrent Fates of
both Worlds, so as Nature may be always a faithful Minister of the
divine Pleasure, whether for Rewards or Punishments, according as the
State of Mankind may require. But theological Providence not being the
Subject of this Work, we shall only observe, as we said before, what
Account we have hitherto given of the natural State of the Earth, and
what remains to be handled in another Treatise, and so conclude.
I did not think it necessary to carry the Story and Original of the
Earth, higher than the Chaos, as _Zoroaster_ and _Orpheus_ seem to have
done; but taking that for our Foundation, which Antiquity sacred and
prophane doth suppose, and natural Reason approve and confirm, we have
form’d the Earth from it. But when we say the Earth rose from a fluid
Mass, it is not to be so crudely understood, as if a Rock of Marble,
suppose, was fluid immediately before it became Marble; no, Things had a
gradual Progression from one Form to another, and came at length to
those more permanent Forms they are now settled in: Stone was once
Earth, and Earth was once Mud, and Mud was once fluid. And so other
Things may have another kind of Progression from Fluidity; but all was
once Fluid, at least all the exterior Regions of this Earth. And even
those Stones and Rocks of Marble which we speak of, seem to confess they
were once soft or liquid, by those Mixtures we find in them of
heterogeneous Bodies, and those Spots and Veins disperst thorough their
Substance; for these Things could not happen to them after they were
hard and impenetrable, in the Form of Stone or Marble. And if we can
soften Rocks and Stones, and run them down into their first Liquors, as
these Observations seem to do, we may easily believe that other Bodies
also that compose the Earth were once in a fluid Mass, which is that we
call a Chaos.
WE therefore watch’d the Motions of that Chaos, and the several
Transformations of it, while it continued Fluid; and we found at length
what its first Concretion would be, and how it settled into the Form of
an habitable Earth. But that Form was very different from the present
Form of the Earth, which is not immediately deducible from a Chaos by
any known Laws of Nature, or by any Wit of Man; as every one, that will
have Patience to examine it, may easily be satisfied. That first Earth
was of a smooth, regular Surface, as the Concretions of Liquors are,
before they are disturb’d or broken; under that Surface lay the great
Abyss, which was ready to swallow up the World that hung over it, and
about it, whensoever God should give the Command, and the Vault should
break and this Constitution of the primæval Earth gave Occasion to the
first Catastrophe of this World, when it perish’d in a Deluge of Water.
For that Vault did break, as we have shewn at large, and by the
Dissolution and Fall of it, the great Deep was thrown out of its Bed,
forc’d upwards into the Air, and overflowed, in that impetuous
Commotion, the highest Tops of the Fragments of the ruin’d Earth, which
now we call its Mountains. And as this was the first great and fatal
Period of Nature; so upon the Issue of this, and the Return of the
Waters into their Channels, the second Face of Nature appear’d, or the
present broken Form of the Earth, as it is _Terraqueous_, _Mountainous_,
and _Cavernous_. These Things we have explain’d fully in the first Book,
and I have thereby settled two great Points, given a rational Account of
the _Universal Deluge_, and shewn the Causes of the irregular Form of
the present or _Postdiluvian Earth_. This being done, we have apply’d
our selves in the second Book, to the Description of the _Primæval
Earth_, and the Examination of its Properties; and this hath led us by
an easy Tract to the Discovery of _Paradise_, and of the true Notion and
Mystery of it; which is not so much a Spot of Ground where a fine Garden
stood, as a Course of Nature, or a peculiar State of the Earth;
_Paradisiacal_ in many Parts, but especially in one Region of it; which
Place or Region we have also endeavour’d to determine, though not so
much from the Theory, as from the Suffrages of Antiquity, if you will
take their Judgment.
THUS much is finish’d, and this contains the natural Theory of the Earth
till this present Time; for since the Deluge all Things have continued
in the same State, or without any remarkable Change. We are next to
enter upon new Matter and new Thoughts, and not only so, but upon a
Series of _Things and Times to come_, which is to make the second Part
of this Theory. Dividing the Duration of the World into two Parts, past
and future, we have dispatch’d the first and far greater Part, and come
better half of our Way; And if we make a Stand here, and look both Ways,
backwards to the Chaos and the Beginning of the World, and forwards to
the End and Consummation of all Things, though the first be a longer
Prospect, yet there are as many general Changes and Revolutions of
Nature in the remaining Part, as have already happen’d; and in the
Evening of this long Day the Scenes will change faster, and be more
bright and illustrious. From the Creation to this Age the Earth hath
undergone but one Catastrophe, and Nature hath had two different Faces.
The next Catastrophe is the CONFLAGRATION, to which a new Face of Nature
will accordingly succeed, _New Heavens_ and a _New Earth_, _Paradise_
renew’d, and so it is call’d the Restitution of Things, or
_Regeneration_ of the World, Ἀποκατάσασις Γαλιγ ἐνεσία. And that Period
of Nature and Providence being expir’d, then follows the _Consummation
of all Things_, or the general _Apothesis_; _when Death and Hell shall
be swallowed up in Victory_. When the great Circle of Time and Fate is
run; or according to the Language of Scripture, _When the Heavens and
the Earth shall pass away, and Time shall be no more._
* * * * *
_MAY we, in the mean time, by a true Love of God above all Things, and a
Contempt of this vain World which passeth away; by a careful Use of the
Gifts of God and Nature, the Light of Reason and Revelation, prepare our
selves, and the State of Things, for the great Coming of our Saviour._
To whom be Praise and Honour for evermore.
_FINIS._
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the sections in which they are
referenced.