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.

Chap. VIII.

The Uses of this Theory for the Illustration of Antiquity; The ancient Chaos explain’d; The Inhabitability of the Torrid Zone; The Change of the Poles of the World; The Doctrine of the Mundane Egg; How America was first peopled; How Paradise within the Circle of the Moon.

We have now dispatch’d the Theory of the primæval Earth, and reviv’d a forgotten World. ’Tis pity the first and fairest Works of Nature should be lost out of the Memory of Man, and that we should so much dote upon the Ruins, as never to think upon the Original Structure. As the Modern Artists, from some broken Pieces of an ancient Statue, make out all the other Parts and Proportions; so from the broken and scatter’d Limbs of the first World, we have shewn you how to raise the whole Fabrick again; and renew the Prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first saw the Light, and first entertain’d Man, when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage.

We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an Account of the universal Deluge, and of Paradise; but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two Things which they want, the Light will not confine it self to those two Objects, but shews all the other in the Room; so, methinks, we have unexpectedly cast a Light upon all Antiquity, in seeking after these two Things, or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the primæval Earth, upon which they depended. For in ancient Learning, there are many Discourses, and many Conclusions deliver’d to us, that are so obscure and confus’d, and so remote from the present State of Things, that one cannot well distinguish whether they are Fictions or Realities: And there is no way to distinguish with Certainty, but by a clear Theory upon the same Subject; which shewing us the Truth directly and independently upon them, shews us also by Reflection, how far they are true or false, and in what Sense they are to be interpreted and understood. And the present Theory being of great extent, we shall find it serviceable in many Things, for the Illustration of such dubious and obscure Doctrines in Antiquity.

To begin with their ancient CHAOS, what a dark Story have they made of it, both their Philosophers and Poets; and how fabulous in Appearance? ’Tis deliver’d as confusedly as the Mass it self could be, and hath not been reduc’d to Order, nor indeed made intelligible by any. They tell us of moral Principles in the Chaos, instead of natural, of Strife and Discord, and Division on the one Hand, and Love, Friendship, and Venus on the other; and, after a long Contest, Love got the better of Discord, and united the disagreeing Principles: This is one Part of their Story. Then they make the Forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogy or Pedigree; Chaos was the common Parent of all, and from Chaos sprung first Night, and Tartarus, or Oceanus; Night was a teeming Mother, and of her were born Æther and the Earth; The Earth conceiv’d by the Influences of Æther, and brought forth Man and all Animals.

This seems to be a poetical Fiction rather than Philosophy; yet when ’tis set in a true Light, and compar’d with our Theory of the Chaos, ’twill appear a pretty regular Account, how the World was form’d at first, or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions, rising one after another, and propagated one from another, as Children and Posterity from a common Parent. We shew’d in the first Book, Chap. 5. how the Chaos, from an uniform Mass, wrought it self into several Regions or Elements; the grossest Part sinking to the Center; upon this lay the Mass of Water, and over the Water was a Region of dark, impure, caliginous Air; this impure caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night, and the Mass of Water Oceanus or Tartarus; for those two Terms with them are often of the like Force, Tartarus being Oceanus inclos’d and lock’d up: Thus we have the first Offspring of the Chaos, or its first born Twins, Nox and Oceanus. Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees, as the more subtle Parts flew upwards, and compos’d the Æther; so the earthy Parts that were mix’d with it drop’d down upon the Surface of the Water, or the liquid Mass; and that Mass on the other Hand sending up its lighter and more oily Parts towards its Surface, these two incorporate there, and by their Mixture and Union compose a Body of Earth quite round the Mass of Waters: And this was the first habitable Earth, which, as it was, you see, the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus, so it was the Mother of all other Things, and all living Creatures, which at the Beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful Womb.

This Doctrine of the Chaos, for the greater Pomp of the Business, the Ancients call’d their Theogonia, or the Genealogy of the Gods; for they gave their Gods, at least their terrestrial Gods, an Original and Beginning; and all the Elements and greater Portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses, or their Deities presided over them in such a Manner, that the Names were us’d promiscuously for one another. We also mention’d before some moral Principles which they plac’d in the Chaos, Eris and Eros; Strife, Discord, and Dissatisfaction, which prevail’d at first; and afterward Love, Kindness and Union got the upper Hand, and in spite of those factious and dividing Principles, gather’d together the separated Elements, and united them into an habitable World. This is all easily understood, if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World, as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter; for in the first Commotion of the Chaos, after an intestine Struggle of all the Parts, the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct Bodies or Masses; and in this State and Posture Things continu’d a good while, which the Ancients, after their poetick or moral Way, call’d the Reign of Eris or Contention, of Hatred, Slight, and Disaffection; and if Things had always continued in that System, we should never have had an habitable World. But Love and good Nature conquer’d at length; Venus rose out of the Sea, and receiv’d into her Bosom, and intangled into her Embraces, the falling Æther, viz. the Parts of lighter Earth, which were mix’d with the Air in that first Separation, and gave it the Name of Night: These, I say, fell down upon the oily Parts of the Sea-mass, which lay floating upon the Surface of it, and by that Union and Conjunction a new Body, and a new World was produc’d, which was the first habitable Earth. This is the Interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos, and the Resolution of it into plain natural History: Which you may see more fully discuss’d in the Latin Treatise, Lib. 2. c. 7.

In consequence of this, we have already explain’d, in several Places, the Golden Age of the Ancients, and laid down such Grounds as will enable us to discern what is real, and what poetical, in the Reports and Characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World. And if there be any Thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth, as Plato’s Atlantis, which, he says, was absorpt by an Earthquake, and an Inundation, as the primæval Earth was; or his Æthereal Earth, mention’d in his Phædo, which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth; makes it to have long-liv’d Inhabitants, and to be without Rains and Storms, as that first Earth was also; or the pendulous Gardens of Alcinous, or such like; to which nothing answers in present Nature, by reflecting upon the State of the first Earth, we find an easy Explication of them. We have also explain’d what the Antichthon and Antichthones of the Ancients were, and what the true Ground of that Distinction was. But nothing seems more remarkable, than the Inhabitability of the Torrid Zone, if we consider what a general Fame and Belief it had amongst the Ancients, and yet in the present Form of the Earth, we find no such Thing, nor any Foundation for it. I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv’d upon a slight Presumption only, because it lay under the Course of the Sun, if the Sun had then the same Latitude from the Æquator, in his Course and Motion, that he hath now, and made the same Variety of Seasons; whereby even the hottest Parts of the Earth have a Winter, or something equivalent to it. But if we apply this to the primæval Earth, whose Posture was direct to the Sun, standing always fixt in its Equinoctial, we shall easily believe, that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by Extremity of Heat, there being no Difference of Seasons, nor any Change of Weather, the Sun hanging always over Head at the same Distance, and in the same Direction. Besides this, the Descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such, that they could never reach the Equinoctial Parts, as we have shewn before; by which Means, and the want of Rain, that Region must necessarily be turn’d into a dry Desart. Now this being really the State of the first Earth, the Fame and general Belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original, and continued still with Posterity after the Deluge, though the Causes then were taken away; for they being ignorant of the Change that was made in Nature at that Time, kept up still the same Tradition and Opinion current, till Observation and Experience taught later Ages to correct it. As the true Miracles that were in the Christian Church at first, occasioned a Fame and Belief of their Continuance long after they had really ceas’d.

This gives an easy Account, and, I think, the true Cause of that Opinion, amongst the Ancients generally receiv’d, That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable. I say, generally receiv’d; for not only the Poets, both Greek and Latin, but their Philosophers, Astronomers and Geographers, had the same Notion, and deliver’d the same Doctrine; as Aristotle, Cleomedes, Achilles, Tatius, Ptolomy, Cicero, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, Macrobius, &c. And to speak Truth, the whole Doctrine of the Zones is calculated more properly for the first Earth, than for the present; for the Divisions and Bounds of them now are but arbitrary, being habitable all over, and having no visible Distinction; whereas they were then determin’d by Nature, and the Globe of the Earth was really divided into so many Regions of a very different Aspect and Quality; which would have appear’d at a Distance, if they had been look’d upon from the Clouds, or from the Moon, as Jupiter’s Belts, or as so many Girdles or Swathing-bands about the Body of the Earth: And so the Word imports, and so the Ancients use to call them Cinguli and Fasciæ. But in the present Form of the Earth, if it was seen at a Distance, no such Distinction would appear in the Parts of it, nor scarce any other but that of Land and Water, and of Mountains and Valleys, which are nothing to the purpose of Zones. And to add this Note further, When the Earth lay in this regular Form, divided into Regions or Walks, if I may so call them, as this gave Occasion of its Distinction by Zones; so if we might consider all that Earth as a Paradise, and Paradise as a Garden; (for it is always call’d so in Scripture, and in Jewish Authors.) And, as this Torrid Zone, bare of Grass and Trees, made a kind of Gravel-walk in the Middle, so there was a green Walk on either Hand of it, made by the temperate Zones; and beyond those lay a Canal, which water’d the Garden from either Side. (See Fig. 3. c. 5.)

But to return to Antiquity; We may add under this Head another Observation or Doctrine amongst the Ancients, strange enough in Appearance, which yet receives an easy Explication from the preceding Theory; They say, The Poles of the World did once change their Situation, and were at first in another Posture from what they are in now, till that Inclination happen’d: This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of, as Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Diogenes, Leucippus, Democritus; (See the Lat. Treat. 2. lib. 2. c. 10.) as may be seen in Laertius, and in Plutarch; and the Stars, they say, at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform Manner. This is no more than what we have observ’d and told you in other Words, namely, That the Earth chang’d its Posture at the Deluge, and thereby made these seeming Changes in the Heavens; its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick, which now point to the Poles of the Equator, and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis; and this is the Mystery and Interpretation of what they say in other Terms; this makes the different Aspect of the Heavens and of its Poles: And I am apt to think, that those Changes in the Course of the Stars, which the Ancients sometimes speak of, and especially the Egyptians, if they did not proceed from Defects in their Calendar, had no other physical Account than this.

And as they say the Poles of the World were in another Situation at first, so at first they say, there was no Variety of Seasons in the Year, as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest, and still runs along with the Theory. And you may observe, that all these Things we have instanc’d in hitherto, are but Links of the same Chain, in Connexion and Dependance upon one another. When the primæval Earth was made out of the Chaos, its Form and Posture was such, as of Course brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the Remembrance of; tho’ now in another State of Nature they seem very strange; especially being disguis’d, as some of them are, by their odd Manner of representing them, That the Poles of the World stood once in another Posture; That the Year had no Diversity of Seasons: That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable; That the two Hemispheres had no possibility of Intercourse, and such like: These all hang upon the same String; or lean one upon another as Stones in the same Building; whereof we have, by this Theory, laid the very Foundation bare, that you may see what they all stand upon, and in what Order.

There is still one remarkable Notion or Doctrine among the Ancients which we have not spoken to; ’tis partly symbolical, and the Propriety of the Symbol, or of the Application of it, hath been little understood; ’tis their Doctrine of the Mundane Egg, or their comparing the World to an Egg, and especially in the original Composition of it. This seems to be a mean Comparison, the World and an Egg; what Proportion, or what Resemblance betwixt these two Things? And yet I do not know any symbolical Doctrine, or Conclusion, that hath been so universally entertain’d by the Mystæ, or wise and learned of all Nations; as hath been noted before in the fifth Chapter of the first Book, and at large in the Latin Treatise. (Lib. 2. c. 10.) ’Tis certain, that by the World in this Similitude, they do not mean the Great Universe, for that hath neither Figure, nor any determinate Form of Composition, and it would be a great Vanity and Rashness in any one to compare this to an Egg: The Works of God are immense, as his Nature is infinite, and we cannot make any Image or Resemblance of either of them; but this Comparison is to be understood of the Sublunary World, or of the Earth: And for a general Key to Antiquity upon this Argument, we may lay this down as a Maxim or Canon, That what the Ancients have said concerning the Form and Figure of the World, or concerning the Original of it from a Chaos, or about its Periods and Dissolution, are never to be understood of the great Universe, but of our Earth, or of this sublunary and terrestrial World. And this Observation being made, do but reflect upon our Theory of the Earth, the Manner of its Composition at first, and the Figure of it, being compleated, and you will need no other Interpreter to understand this Mystery. We have shew’d there, (Book 1. c. 5.) that the Figure of it, when finish’d, was Oval, and the inward Form of it was a Frame of four Regions, encompassing one another, where that of Fire lay in the Middle like the Yolk, and a Shell of Earth inclos’d them all. This gives a Solution so easy and natural, and shews such an Aptness and Elegancy in the Representation, that one cannot doubt upon a View and Compare of Circumstances, but that we have truly found out the Riddle of the Mundane Egg.

Amongst other Difficulties arising from the Form of this present Earth, that is one, How America could be peopled, or any other Continent, or Island remote from all Continents the Sea interposing. This Difficulty does not hold in our Theory of the first Earth, where there was no Sea. And after the Flood, when the Earth was broken and the Sea laid open, the same Race of Men might continue there, if settled there before. For I do not see any Necessity of deducing all Mankind from Noah after the Flood. If America was peopled before, it might continue so; not but that the Flood was universal. But when the great Frame of the Earth broke at the Deluge, Providence foresaw into how many Continents it would be divided after the ceasing of the Flood; and accordingly, as we may reasonably suppose, made Provision to save a Remnant in every Continent, that the Race of Mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them. What Provision he made in our Continent we know from sacred History; but as that takes Notice of no other Continent but ours, so neither could it take Notice of any Method that was us’d there for saving of a Remnant of Men; but ’twere great Presumption, methinks, to imagine, that Providence had a Care of none but us, or could not find out Ways of Preservation in other Places, as well as in that where our Habitations were to be. Asia, Africa and Europe, were repeopled by the Sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; but we read nothing of their going over into America, or sending any Colonies thither; and that World, which is near as big as ours, must have stood long without People, or any thing of humane Race in it, after the Flood, if it stood so till this was full, or till Men navigated the Ocean, and by chance discover’d it: It seems more reasonable to suppose, that there was a Stock providentially reserv’d there, as well as here, out of which they sprung again; but we do not pretend in an Argument of this Nature to define or determine any Thing positively. To conclude, As this is but a secondary Difficulty, and of no great Force, so neither is it any Thing peculiar to us, or to our Hypothesis, but alike common to both; and if they can propose any reasonable Way whereby the Sons of Noah might be transplanted into America, with all my Heart; but all the Ways that I have met with hitherto, have seem’d to me mere Fictions, or mere Presumptions. Besides, finding Birds and Beasts there, which are no where upon our Continent, nor would live in our Countries if brought hither; ’tis a fair Conjecture that they were not carried from us, but originally bred and preserv’d there.

Thus much for the Illustration of Antiquity in some Points of human Literature, by our Theory of the primæval Earth; there is also in Christian Antiquity a Tradition or Doctrine, that appears as obscure and as much a Paradox as any of these, and better deserves an Illustration, because it relates more closely and expresly to our present Subject: ’Tis that Notion or Opinion amongst the Ancients concerning Paradise, that it was seated as high as the Sphere of the Moon, or within the lunar Circle. This looks very strange, and indeed extravagantly at first Sight; but the Wonder will cease, if we understand this not of Paradise taken apart from the rest of the Earth, but of the whole primæval Earth, wherein the Seat of Paradise was; That was really seated much higher than the present Earth, and may be reasonably suppos’d to have been as much elevated as the Tops of our Mountains are now. And that Phrase of reaching to the Sphere of the Moon, signifies no more than those other Expressions of reaching to Heaven, or reaching above the Clouds; which are Phrases commonly us’d to express the Height of Buildings, or of Mountains, and such like Things: So the Builders of Babel said, they would make a Tower should reach to Heaven; Olympus and Parnassus are said by the Poets to reach to Heaven, or to rise above the Clouds; and Pliny and Solinus use this very Expression of the Lunar Circle, when they describe the Height of Mount Atlas, Eductus in viciniam Lunaris Circuli, (Solin. c. 17.) The Ancients, I believe, aim’d particularly by this Phrase, to express an Height above the middle Region, or above our Atmosphere, that Paradise might be serene; and where our Atmosphere ended, they reckon’d the Sphere of the Moon begun, and therefore said it reach’d to the Sphere of the Moon. Many of the Christian Fathers exprest their Opinion concerning the high Situation of Paradise in plain and formal Terms, as St. Basil, Damascen, Moses Bar Cepha, &c. but this Phrase of reaching to the Lunar Circle is repeated by several of them, and said to be of great Antiquity. Aquinas, Albertus, and others, ascribe it to Bede, but many to St. Austin; and therefore Ambrosius Catharinus, (Com. in Gen. c. 2.) is angry with their great Schoolman, that he should derive it from Bede, seeing St. Austin writing to Orosius, deliver’d this Doctrine, which surely, says he, St. Austin neither feign’d nor dream’d only, but had receiv’d it from Antiquity: And from so great Antiquity, that it was no less than Apostolical, if we credit Albertus Magnus, and the ancient Books he appeals to; (Sum. Theol. par. 2. tract. 13. q. 79.) for he says this Tradition was deriv’d as high as from St. Thomas the Apostle. His Words are these, after he had deliver’d his own Opinion, Hoc tamen dico, &c. But this I say without Prejudice to the better Opinion, for I have found it in some most ancient Books, that Thomas the Apostle was the Author of that Opinion, which is usually attributed to Bede and Strabus, namely, That Paradise was so high as to reach to the Lunar Circle. But thus much concerning this Opinion, and concerning Antiquity.

To conclude all, we see this Theory, which was drawn only by a Thread of Reason, and the Laws of Nature, abstractedly from all Antiquity, notwithstanding casts a Light upon many Passages there, which were otherwise accounted Fictions, or unintelligible Truths; and tho’ we do not alledge these as Proofs of the Theory, for it carries its own Light and Proof with it; yet, whether we will or no, they do mutually confirm, as well as illustrate one another; and ’tis a Pleasure also, when one hath wrought out Truth by a meer Dint of thinking, and Examination of Causes, and propos’d it plainly and openly, to meet with it again among the Ancients, disguis’d, and in an old fashion’d Dress; scarce to be known or discover’d, but by those that beforehand knew it very well. And it would be a further Pleasure and Satisfaction to have render’d those Doctrines and Notions for the future, intelligible and useful to others, as well as delightful to our selves.