The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book. The general State of the Primæval Earth, and of Paradise.
We have already seen a World begin and perish; an Earth rais’d from the Rudiments of a Chaos, and dissolv’d and destroy’d in an Universal Deluge. We have given also an imperfect Description of that Primæval Earth, so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and Manner of its Dissolution. But we must not content our selves with this; seeing that Earth was the first Theatre upon which Mortals appear’d and acted, and continu’d so for above sixteen hundred Years; and that with Scenes, as both Reason and History tell us, very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth, ’tis reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full Discovery and Description of it; especially seeing Paradise was there; that Seat of Pleasure which our first Parents lost, and which all their Posterity have much ado to find again.
In the First Book we so far describ’d this new-found World, as to shew it very different in Form and Fabrick from the present Earth; there was no Sea there, no Mountains, nor Rocks, nor broken Caves, ’twas all one continued and regular Mass, smooth, simple and compleat, as the first Works of Nature use to be. But to know thus much only, doth rather excite our Curiosity than satisfy it; what were the other Properties of this World? How were the Heavens, how the Elements? What Accommodation for Human Life? Why was it more proper to be the Seat of Paradise than the present Earth? Unless we know these Things, you will say, it will seem but an easy Idea to us; and ’tis certain that the more Properties and Particularities that we know concerning any thing, the more real it appears to be.
As it was our Chief Design therefore in the precedent Book, to give an Account of the Universal Deluge, by way of a Theory; so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book, from the same Theory, to give an Account of Paradise; and in performing of this, we shall be led into a more full Examination and Display of that first Earth, and of its Qualities. And if we be so happy, as, by the Conduct of the same Principles and the same Method, to give as fair an Account, and as intelligible of the State of Paradise in that Original Earth, as we have done of the Deluge by the Dissolution of it, and of the Form of this Earth which succeeded, one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine, that the Grounds we go upon, all this while, are wholly false or fictitious. A Foundation which will bear the Weight of two Worlds without sinking, must surely stand upon a firm Rock. And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find Acceptance and Credit, more or less, with all but those that think it a sufficient Answer to all Arguments, to say, it is a Novelty.
But to proceed in our Disquisition concerning Paradise, we may note in the first Place, two Opinions to be avoided, being both extreams; one that placeth Paradise in the extra-mundane Regions, or in the Air, or in the Moon; and the other that makes it so inconsiderable, as to be confin’d to a little Spot of Ground in Mesopotamia or some other Country of Asia, the Earth being now as it was then. This offends as much in the Defect, as the other in the Excess. For it is not any single Region of the Earth that can be Paradisiacal, unless all Nature conspire, and a certain Order of Things proper and peculiar for that State. Nor is it of less Importance to find out this peculiar Order of Things, than to find out the particular Seat of Paradise, but rather pre-requisite to it: We will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both, so far as a Theory can go, beginning with that which is more general.
’Tis certain there were some Qualities and Conditions of Paradise that were not meerly topical, but common to all the rest of the Earth at that Time; and these we must consider in the first Place, examine what they were, and upon what they depended. History, both Sacred and Profane, must tell us what they were, and our Theory must shew us upon what Causes they depended. I had once, I confess, propos’d to my self another Method, independent upon History or Effects; I thought to have continued the Description of the Primitive or antediluvian Earth from the Contemplation of its Causes only, and then left it to the Judgment of others to determine, whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age was past, and where Paradise stood. For I had observ’d three Conditions or Characters of it, which I thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first State of Things, viz. The Regularity of its Surface; The Situation or Posture of its Body to the Sun; and the Figure of it: From these three general Causes I thought might be deduc’d all the chief Differences of that Earth from the present, and particularly those that made it more capable of being Paradisiacal.
But upon second Thoughts I judg’d it more useful and expedient to lay aside the Causes at present, and begin with the Effects, that we night have some sensible Matter to work upon. Bare Ideas of Things are look’d upon as romantick till Effects be propos’d, whereof they are to give an Account; ’Tis that makes us value the Causes when Necessity puts us upon Enquiry after them; and the Reasons of Things are very acceptable, when they ease the Mind, anxious and at a loss how to understand Nature without their help. We will therefore, without more ado, premise those Things that have been taken Notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World, and to Paradise, and which neither do, nor can, obtain in the present Earth; whereof the first is a perpetual Spring or Equinox; the second, the Longævity of Animals; and the third, their Production out of the Earth, and the great Fertility of the Soil in all other Things.
These Difficulties guard the way to Paradise like the flaming Sword, and must be remov’d before we can enter; these are general Preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular Place of this Garden of Pleasure. The Ancients have taken Notice of all those in the first Ages of the World, or in their golden Age, as they call it; and I do not doubt but what they ascribe to the golden Age, was more remarkably true of Paradise; yet was not so peculiar to it, but that it did in a good measure extend to other Parts of the Earth at that Time. And ’tis manifest that their golden Age was contemporary with our Paradise; for they make it begin immediately after the Production and Inhabitation of the Earth (which they, as well as Moses, raise from the Chaos) and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge; when the World ended, and begun again.
That this Parallel may the better appear, we may observe, that as we say that the whole Earth was, in some Sense, Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World, and that there was, besides, one Region or Portion of it that was peculiarly so, and bore the Denomination of Paradise; So the Ancients, beside their golden Age, which was common to all the Earth, noted some Parts of it that were more golden, if I may so say, than the rest, and which did more particularly answer to Paradise; as their Elysian Fields, Fortunate Islands, Gardens of Hesperides, Alcinous, &c. these had a double Portion of Pleasantness, and, beside the Advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth at that Time, had something proper and singular, which gave them a distinct Consideration and Character from the rest.
Having made this Observation, let us proceed, and see what Antiquity saith, concerning that first and Paradisiacal State of Things, upon those three Heads forementioned; First, that there was a perpetual Spring, and constant Serenity of the Air. This is often repeated by the ancient Poets, in their Description of the golden Age.
For I interpret this in the same Sense with Ovid’s Verses of the golden Age:
And then upon the Expiration of the golden Age, he says,
The Ancients suppos’d, that in the Reign of Saturn, who was an antediluvian God, as I may so call him, Time flow’d with a more even Motion, and there was no Diversity of Seasons in the Year; but Jupiter, they say, first introduc’d that, when he came to manage Affairs. This is exprest after their way, who seldom give any severe and philosophical Accounts of the Changes of Nature. And as they suppos’d this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age, so they did also in their particular Elysiums; as I could shew largely from their Authors, if it would not multiply Citations too much. ’Tis true, their Elysiums respected the new Heavens, and new Earth to come, rather than the past; but they are both fram’d upon the same Model, and have common Properties.
The Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and Serenity of the Heavens in Paradise; such Expressions or Descriptions you will find in Justin Martyr, S. Basil, Damascen, Isidore Hispalensis, De Grat. prim. hom. and others, insomuch that Bellarmine, I remember, reflecting upon those Characters of Paradise, which many of the Fathers have given in these Respects, saith, Such Things could not be, unless the Sun had then another Course from what he hath now; or which is more easy, the Earth another Situation. Which Conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well grounded. In the mean Time, let us see the Christian Poetry upon this Subject, as we have seen the Roman upon the other. Alcimus Avitus hath thus describ’d Paradise in his Notes upon Genesis:
And as the Christian Authors, so likewise the Jewish have spoken of Paradise in the same manner; they tell us also that the Days there were always of the same Length throughout the whole Year; and that made ’em fancy Paradise to lie under the Equinoctial; as we shall see in its due Place. ’Tis true, we do not find these Things mention’d expresly in the Sacred Writings, but the Effects that flow’d from ’em are recorded there, and we may reasonably suppose Providence to have foreseen, that when those Effects came to be scan’d and narrowly look’d into, they would lead us to a Discovery of the Causes, and particularly of this great and general Cause, that perpetual Equinox and Unity of Seasons in the Year, till the Deluge. The Longevity of the Antediluvians cannot be explain’d upon any other Supposition, as we shall have Occasion to shew hereafter; and that you know is recorded carefully in Scripture: As also that there was no Rainbow before the Flood; which goes upon the same Ground, that there was no Variety of Seasons, nor any Rain: And this by many is thought to be understood by Moses’s Words, Gen. ii. 5, 6. which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth. Lastly, Seeing the Earth then brought forth the Principles of Life and all living Creatures (Man excepted) according to Moses, Gen. i. 24. we must suppose that the State of the Heavens was such as favour’d these Conceptions and Births, which could not possibly be brought to Perfection, as the Seasons of the Year are at present. The first time that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter, and the Differences of Seasons, is at the ending of the Deluge, Gen. viii. 22. Henceforward all the Days of the Earth, Seed-time and Harvest, Heat and Cold, Summer and Winter, Day and Night shall not cease. ’Tis true these Words are so lax, that they may be understood either of a new Course of Nature then instituted, or of an old one restor’d; but seeing it doth appear from other Arguments and Considerations, that there was at that time a new Course of Nature constituted, it is more reasonable to interpret the Words in that Sense; which, as it is agreeable to Truth, according to Reason and Antiquity so it renders that Remark of Moses of far greater Importance, if it be understood as an Indication of a new Order then settled in Nature, which should continue henceforwards so long as the Earth endur’d. Nor do I at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declar’d in Scripture; for Natural Mysteries in the Holy Writings, as well as Prophetical, are many times, on set Purpose, incompleatly deliver’d, so as to awaken and excite our Thoughts rather than fully resolve them: This being often more suitable to the Designs of Providence in the Government of the World. But thus much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age, and of Paradise, a perpetual Serenity and perpetual Equinox.
The second Character is the Longevity of Men, and, as is probable, of all other Animals in Proportion. This, methinks, is as strange and surprising as the other, and I know no Difference betwixt the Antediluvian World and the present, so apt to affect us, if we reflect upon it, as this wonderful Disproportion in the Ages of Men; our Forefathers and their Posterity: They liv’d seven, eight, nine hundred Years and upwards, and ’tis a wonder now if a Man live to one hundred. Our Oaks do not last so long as their Bodies did; Stone and Iron would scarce outwear them. And this Property of the first Ages, or their Inhabitants, how strange soever, is well attested, and beyond all Exception, having the joint Consent of Sacred and Profane History. The Scripture sets down the precise Age of a Series of Antediluvian Patriarchs, and by that measures the Time from the beginning of the World to the Deluge; so as all Sacred Chronology stands upon that bottom. Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a Thing, that to save the Credit of Moses and the Sacred History, they interpret these Years of Lunar Years or Months; and so the Ages of these Patriarchs are reduc’d to much what the same measure with the common Life of Man at this Time. It may be observ’d in this, as in many other Instances, that for want of a Theory to make Things credible and intelligible, Men of Wit and Parts have often deprest the Sense of Scripture; and that not out of any ill Will to Scripture or Religion, but because they could not otherwise, upon the Stock of their Notions, give themselves a rational Account of Things recorded there. But I hope when we come to explain the Causes of this Longevity, we shall shew that it is altogether as strange a Thing that Men should have such short Lives as they have now, as that they had such long Lives in the first Ages of the World. In the mean time there are a great many collateral Reasons to assure us that Lunar Years cannot be here understood by Moses, for all Antiquity gives the same Account of those first Ages of the World, and of the first Men, that they were extreamly long-liv’d. We meet with it generally in the Description of the Golden Age; and not only so, but in their Topical Paradises also they always suppos’d a great Vivacity or Longevity in those that enjoy’d them. And Josephus, speaking upon this Subject, Book I. C. iv. Jew. Ant. saith, the Authors of all the learned Nations, Greeks, or Barbarians, bare witness to Moses’s Doctrine in this Particular. And in the Mosaical History it self, there are several Circumstances and Marks that discover plainly, that the Years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of Lunar Years; as we shall have Occasion to shew in another Place. We proceed in the mean time to the third and last Character, The extraordinary Fertility of the Soil, and the Production of Animals out of the new made Earth.
The first part of this Character is unquestionable; All Antiquity speaks of the Plenty of the Golden Age, and of their Paradises, whether Christian or Heathen. The Fruits of the Earth were at first spontaneous, and the Ground, without being torn and tormented, satisfied the Wants or Desires of Man. When Nature was fresh and full, all things flow’d from her more easily and more pure, like the first running of the Grape, or the Honey-comb; but now she must be prest and squeez’d, and her Productions taste more of the Earth and of bitterness. The ancient Poets have often pleas’d themselves in making Descriptions of this happy State, and in admiring the Riches and Liberality of Nature at that Time; but we need not transcribe their Poetry here, seeing this Point is not, I think, contested by any. The second Part of this Character, concerning the spontaneous Origin of living Creatures out of that first Earth, is not so unquestionable; and as to Man, Moses plainly implies, that there was a particular Action or Ministry of Providence in the Formation of his Body; but as to other Animals, he seems to suppose that the Earth brought them forth as it did Herbs and Plants. (Gen. i. 24. compar’d with the 11th Verse.) And the Truth is, there is no such great Difference betwixt Vegetable and Animal Eggs, or betwixt the Seeds out of which Plants rise, and the Eggs out of which all Animals rise, but that we may conceive the one as well as the other in the first Earth; And as some Warmth and Influence from the Sun is required for the Vegetation of Seeds, so that Influence or Impregnation, which is necessary to make Animal Eggs fruitful, was imputed by the Ancients to the Æther, or to an active and pure Element which had the same Effect upon our great Mother the Earth, as the Irradiation of the Male hath upon the Female’s Eggs.
’Tis true, this Opinion of the spontaneous Origin of Animals in the first Earth hath lain under some Odium, because it was commonly reckon’d to be Epicurus’s Opinion peculiarly; and he extended it not only to all Brute Creatures, but to Mankind also, whom he suppos’d to grow out of the Earth in great Numbers, in several Parts and Countries, like other Animals; which is a Notion contrary to the Sacred Writings; for they declare, that all Mankind, though diffus’d now through the several Parts and Regions of the Earth, rose at first from one Head or single Man or Woman; which is a Conclusion of great Importance, and that could not, I think, by the Light of Nature, have ever been discover’d. And this makes the Epicurean Opinion the more improbable, for why should two rise only, if they sprung from the Earth? Or how could they rise in their full Growth and Perfection, as Adam and Eve did? But as for the Opinion of Animals rising out of the Earth at first, that was not at all peculiar to Epicurus: The Stoicks were of the same Mind, and the Pythagoreans and the Egyptians, and I think, all that suppos’d the Earth to rise from a Chaos. Neither do I know any harm in that Opinion, if duly limited and stated; for what Inconvenience is it, or what Diminution of Providence, that there should be the Principles of Life, as well as the Principles of Vegetation, in the new Earth? And unless you suppose all the first Animals, as well as the first Man, to have been made at one Stroke, in their full Growth and Perfection, which we have neither Reason nor Authority sufficient to believe; if they were made young, little, and weak, as they come now into the World, there seems to be no way for their Production more proper, and decorous, than that they should spring from their great Mother the Earth. Lastly, considering the innumerable little Creatures that are upon the Earth, Insects and creeping Things; and that these were not created out of nothing, but form’d out of the Ground; I think that an Office most proper for Nature, that can set so many Hands to work at once; and that hath Hands fit for all those little Operations or Manufactures, how small soever, that would less become the Dignity of Superior Agents.
Thus much for the Preliminaries, or three general Characters of Paradise, which were common to it with the rest of the Primæval Earth; and were the chief Ingredients of the Golden Age, so much celebrated by the Ancients. I know there were several other Differences betwixt that Earth and this; but these are the Original; and such as are not necessary to be premis’d for the general Explication of Paradise, we reserve for another Place. We may in the mean time observe, how preposterously they go to work, that set themselves immediately to find out some pleasant Place of the Earth to fix Paradise in, before they have consider’d, or laid any Grounds, to explain the general Conditions of it, wheresoever it was. These must be first known and determin’d, and we must take our Aim and Directions from these, how to proceed further in out Enquiries after it; otherwise we sail without a Compass, or seek a Port and know not which way it lies. And as we should think him a very unskilful Pilot that sought a Place in the new World, or America, that really was in the old; so they commit no less an Error, that seek Paradise in the present Earth, as now constituted, which could only belong to the former, and to the State of the first World: As will appear more plainly in the following Chapter.
The great Change of the World since the Flood from what it was in the first Ages. The Earth under its present Form could not be Paradisiacal, nor any Part of it.
The Scheme of this World passeth away, saith an Holy Author: the Mode and Form both of the Natural and Civil World changeth continually more or less, but most remarkable at certain Periods, when all Nature puts on another Face; as it will do at the Conflagration, and hath done already from the Time of the Deluge. We may imagine how different a Prospect the first World would make from what we see now in the present State of Things, if we consider only those Generals, by which we have describ’d it in the foregoing Chapter, and what their Influence would be upon Mankind and the rest of Nature. For every new State of Nature doth introduce a new Civil Order, and a new Face and Oeconomy of Human Affairs: And I am apt to think, that some two Planets, that are under the same State or Period, do not so much differ from one another, as the same Planet doth from it self in different Periods of its Duration. We do not seem to inhabit the same World that our first Fore-fathers did, nor scarce to be the same Race of Men. Our Life now is so short and vain, as if we came into the World only to see it and leave it; by that Time we begin to understand our selves a little, and to know where we are, and how to act our part, we must leave the Stage, and give Place to others as meer Novices as we were our selves at our first Entrance. And this short Life is employ’d in a great Measure to preserve our selves from Necessity, or Diseases, or Injuries of the Air, or other Inconveniences; to make one Man easy, ten must work and do drudgery; The Body takes up so much Time, we have little Leisure for Contemplation, or to cultivate the Mind. The Earth doth not yield us Food, but with much Labour and Industry; and what was her free-will Offering before, or an easy Liberality, can scarce now be extorted from her. Neither are the Heavens more favourable, sometimes in one Extream, sometimes in another; The Air often impure or infectious, and, for a great Part of the Year, Nature her self seems to be sick or dead. To this Vanity the external Creation is made subject as well as Mankind, and so must continue till the Restitution of all Things.
Can we imagine, in those happy Times and Places we are treating of, that Things stood in this same Posture? Are these the Fruits of the golden Age and of Paradise, or consistent with their Happiness? And the Remedies of these Evils must be so universal, you cannot give them to one Place or Region of the Earth, but all must participate: For these are Things that flow from the Course of the Heavens, or such general Causes, as extend at once to all Nature. If there was a perpetual Spring and perpetual Equinox in Paradise, there was at the same Time a perpetual Equinox all the Earth over; unless you place Paradise in the middle of the Torrid Zone. So also the long Lives of the Antediluvians was an universal Effect, and must have had an universal Cause. ’Tis true, in some single Parts or Regions of the present Earth, the Inhabitants live generally longer than in others, but do not approach in any Measure the Age of their antediluvian Fore-fathers; and that degree of Longevity which they have above the rest, they owe to the Calmness and Tranquillity of their Heavens and Air; which is but an imperfect Participation of that Cause which was once universal, and had its Effect throughout the whole Earth. And as to the Fertility of this Earth, though in some Spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others, and more delicious; yet that of the first Earth was a Fertility of another kind, being spontaneous, and extending to the Production of Animals, which cannot be without a favourable Concourse from the Heavens also.
Thus much in general; we will now go over those three fore-mention’d Characters more distinctly, to shew, by their Unsuitableness to the present State of Nature, that neither the whole Earth, as it is now, nor any Part of it, could be Paradisiacal. The perpetual Spring, which belong’d to the golden Age, and to Paradise, is an Happiness this present Earth cannot pretend to, nor is capable of, unless we could transfer the Sun from the Ecliptick to the Equator, or, which is as easy, persuade the Earth to change its Posture to the Sun. If Archimedes had found a Place to plant his Machines in for removing of the Earth, all that I should have desir’d of him, would have been only to have given it an Heave at one End, and set it a little to rights again with the Sun, that we might have enjoy’d the Comfort of a perpetual Spring, which we have lost by its Dislocation ever since the Deluge. And there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a Paradisiacal State than this Unity and equality of Seasons, where that cannot be, ’tis in vain to seek for the rest of Paradise.
The spontaneous Fruitfulness of the Ground was a thing peculiar to the Primigenial Soil, which was so temper’d, as made it more Luxuriant at that time than it could ever be afterwards; and as that rich Temperament was spent, so by degrees it grew less fertile. The Origin or Production of Animals out of the Earth depended not only upon this vital Constitution of the Soil at first, but also upon such a Posture and Aspect of the Heavens, as favour’d, or at least permitted Nature, to make her best Works out of this prepar’d Matter, and better than could be made in that manner after the Flood. Noah, we see, had Orders given him to preserve the Races of living Creatures in his Ark, when the old World was destroy’d; which is an Argument to me, that Providence foresaw that the Earth would not be capable to produce them under its new Form; and that, not only for want of Fitness in the Soil, but because of the Diversity of Seasons which were then to take place, whereby Nature would be disturb’d in her Work, and the Subject to be wrought upon would not continue long enough in the same due Temper. But this Part of the second Character, concerning the Original of Animals, deserves to be further examin’d and explain’d.
The first Principles of Life must be tender and ductile, that they may yield to all the Motions and gentle Touches of Nature; otherwise it is not possible, that they should be wrought with that Curiosity, and drawn into all those little fine Threads and Textures, that we see and admire in some parts of the Bodies of Animals. And as the Matter must be so constituted at first, so it must be kept in a due Temper till the Work be finish’d, without any Excess of Heat or Cold; and accordingly we see that Nature hath made Provision in all sorts of Creatures whether Oviparous or Viviparous, that the first Rudiments of Life should be preserv’d from all Injuries of the Air, and kept in a moderate Warmth. Eggs are enclos’d in a Shell, or Film, and must be cherished with an equal gentle heat, to begin Formation and continue it, otherwise the Work miscarries: And in Viviparous Creatures, the Materials of Life are safely lodg’d in the Female’s Womb, and conserv’d in a fit Temperature ’twixt heat and cold, while the Causes that Providence hath employ’d are busy at work, fashioning and placing and joining the Parts in that due Order which so wonderful a Fabrick requires.
Let us now compare these Things with the Birth of Animals in the new-made World, when they first rose out of the Earth, to see what Provision could be made there for their Safety and Nourishment, while they were a making, and when newly made; and though we take all Advantages we can, and suppose both the Heavens and the Earth favourable, a fit Soil and a warm and constant Temper of the Air, all will be little enough to make this way of Production feasible or probable. But if we suppose there was then the same Inconstancy of the Heavens that is now, the same Vicissitude of Seasons, and the same inequality of Heat and Cold, I do not think it at all possible that they could be so form’d, or, being new-form’d, preserv’d and nourish’d. ’Tis true, some little Creatures that are of short Dispatch in their Formation, and find Nourishment enough wheresoever they are bred, might be produc’d and brought to Perfection in this way, notwithstanding any Inequality of Seasons; because they are made all at a Heat, as I may so say, begun and ended within the compass of one Season. But the great Question is, concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals, that require a long stay in the Womb, to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the World. Such Animals, being big and strong, must have a pretty Hardness in their Bones, and Force and Firmness in their Muscles and Joints, before they can bear their own weight, and exercise the common Motions of their Body: And accordingly we see Nature hath ordain’d for these a longer Time of Gestation, that their Limbs and Members might have time to acquire Strength and Solidity. Besides, the young ones of these Animals have commonly the Milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth, which is a very proper Nourishment, and like to that which they had before in the Womb; and by this means their Stomachs are prepar’d by degrees for coarser Food; Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been wean’d as soon as they were born, or as soon as they were separated from their Mother the Earth, and therefore must be allow’d a longer Time of Continuing there.
These Things being consider’d, we cannot in Reason but suppose, that these Terrigenous Animals were as long, or longer, a Perfecting, than our Viviparous, and were not separated from the Body of the Earth for ten, twelve, eighteen, or more Months, according as their Nature was; and seeing in this Space of Time they must have suffer’d, upon the common Hypothesis, all Vicissitudes and Variety of Seasons, and great Excesses of Heat and Cold, which are Things incompatible with the tender Principles of Life, and the Formation of living Creatures, as we have shewn before; we may reasonably and safely conclude, that Nature had not, when the World began, the same Course she hath now, or that the Earth was not then in its present Posture and Constitution: Seeing, I say, these first spontaneous Births, which both the Holy Writ, Reason and Antiquity seem to allow, could not be finish’d and brought to Maturity, nor afterwards preserv’d and nourish’d, upon any other Supposition.
Longevity is the last Character to be consider’d, and as inconsistent with the present State of the Earth as any other. There are many Things in the Story of the first Ages that seem strange, but nothing so prodigy-like as the long Lives of those Men; that their Houses of Clay should stand eight or nine hundred Years and upwards, and those we build of the hardest Stone, or Marble, will not now last so long. This hath excited the Curiosity of ingenious and learned Men in all Ages, to enquire after the possible Causes of that Longevity; and if it had been always in Conjunction with Innocency of Life and Manners, and expir’d when that expir’d, we might have thought it some peculiar Blessing or Reward attending that; but it was common to good and bad, and lasted till the Deluge, whereas Mankind was degenerate long before. Amongst Natural Causes, some have imputed it to the Sobriety and Simplicity of their Diet and manner of Living in those Days, that they eat no Flesh, and had not all those Provocations to Gluttony, which Wit and Vice have since invented. This might have some Effect, but not possibly to that Degree and Measure that we speak of. There are many Monastical Persons now, that live Abstemiously all their Lives, and yet they think an hundred Years a very great Age amongst them. Others have imputed it to the Excellency of their Fruits, and some unknown Virtue in their Herbs and Plants in those Days; but they may as well say nothing, as say that which can neither be prov’d nor understood. It could not be either the Quantity or Quality of their food that was the Cause of their long Lives, for the Earth was said to be curst long before the Deluge, and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless (for the generality) than ours is now; yet we do not see that their Longevity decreas’d at all, from the Beginning of the World to the Flood. Methusalah was Noah’s Grandfather but one intire Remove from the Deluge, and he liv’d longer than any of his Fore-fathers. That Food that will nourish the Parts, and keep us in Health, is also capable to keep us in long Life, if there be no Impediments otherwise; for to continue Health is to continue Life; as that Fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a Flame, will preserve it as long as you please, if you add fresh Fewel, and no external Causes hinder: Neither do we observe that in those Parts of the present Earth, where People live longer than in others, that there is any thing extraordinary in their Food; but that the Difference is chiefly from the Air and the Temperateness of the Heavens; And if the Antediluvians had not enjoy’d that Advantage in a peculiar manner, and differently from what any Parts of the Earth do now, they would never have seen seven, eight, or nine hundred Years go over their Heads, though they had been nourish’d with Nectar and Ambrosia.
Others have thought that the long Lives of those Men of the old World proceeded from the Strength of their Stamina, or first Principles of their Bodies; which if they were now as strong in us, they think we should still live as long as they did. This could not be the sole and adequate Cause of their Longevity, as will appear both from History and Reason. Shem, who was born before the Flood, and had in his Body all the Virtue of the antediluvian Stamina and Constitution, fell three hundred Years short of the Age of his Fore-fathers, because the greatest part of his Life was past after the Flood. That their Stamina were stronger than ours are, I am very ready to believe, and that their Bodies were greater; and any Race of strong Men, living long in Health, would have Children of a proportionable strong Constitution with themselves; but then the Question is, how was this interrupted? We that are their Posterity, why do not we inherit their long Lives? How was this Constitution broken at the Deluge, and how did the Stamina fail so fast when that came? Why was there so great a Crisis then and Turn of Life, or why was that the Period of their Strength?
We see this Longevity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood, and after that it sunk by gentler degrees, but was still in Motion and Declension till it was fixt at length before David’s time, Psal. xc. 10. (call’d a Psalm of Moses,) in that which hath been the common Standard of Man’s Age ever since: As when some excellent Fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil, it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of Meanness as suits that Air and Soil, and then it stands. That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Antediluvian Measure to the present, I impute it to the remaining Stamina of those first Ages, and the Strength of that pristine Constitution which could not wear off but by degrees. We see the Blacks do not quit their Complexion immediately, by removing into another Climate, but their Posterity changeth by little and little, and after some Generations they become altogether like the People of the Country where they are. Thus by the Change of Nature that happen’d at the Flood, the unhappy Influence of the Air and unequal Seasons, weaken’d by degrees the innate Strength of their Bodies, and the Vigour of their Parts, which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of Years, if the Heavens had continued their Course as formerly, or the Earth its Position. To conclude this particular, if any think that the Antediluvian Longevity proceeded only from the Stamina, or the meer Strength of their Bodies, and would have been so under any Constitution of the Heavens, let ’em resolve themselves these Questions: First, Why these Stamina, or this Strength of Constitution fail’d? Secondly, Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge? Thirdly, Why in such Proportions as it hath done since the Deluge? And lastly, Why it hath stood so long immovable, and without any further Diminution? Within the compass of five hundred Years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety; and in the compass of more than three thousand Years since, they have not sunk ten Years, or scarce any thing at all. Who considers the Reasons of these Things, and the true Resolution of these Questions, will be satisfied, that to understand the Causes of that Longevity, something more must be consider’d than the Make and Strength of their Bodies; which though they had been made as strong as the Behemoth or Leviathan, could not have lasted so many Ages, if there had not been a particular Concurrence of external Causes, such as the present State of Nature doth not admit of.
By this short Review of the three general Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age, we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present Form and Order of the Earth. Who can pretend to assign any Place or Region in this terraqueous Globe, Island or Continent, that is capable of these Conditions, or that agrees either with the Descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradises, or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture Paradise? But where then, will you say, must we look for it, if not upon this Earth? This puts us more into Despair of finding it than ever; ’tis not above nor below, in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions; No, doubtless ’twas upon the Surface of the Earth, but of the Primitive Earth, whose Form and Properties, as they were different from this, so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal, both according to the forementioned Characters, and all other Qualities, and Privileges reasonably ascrib’d to Paradise.
The Original Differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or post-diluvian. The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth. A particular Explication of each Character.
We have hitherto only perplex’d the Argument and our selves, by shewing how inexplicable the State of Paradise is, according to the present Order of Things, and the present Condition of the Earth. We must now therefore bring into View that Original and Antediluvian Earth, where we pretend its Seat was, and shew it capable of all those Privileges which we have deny’d to the present; in virtue of which Privileges, and of the order of Nature establish’d there, that Primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal, as in the Golden Age; and some Region of it might be peculiarly so, according to the receiv’d Idea of Paradise. And this, I think, is all the Knowledge and Satisfaction that we can expect, or that Providence hath allow’d us in this Argument.
The Primigenial Earth, which in the first Book (Chap. 5.) we rais’d from a Chaos, and set up in an habitable Form, we must now survey again with more Care, to observe its principal Differences from the present Earth, and what Influence they will have upon the Question in Hand. These Differences, as we have said before, were chiefly three; the Form of it, which was smooth, even, and regular; the Posture and Situation of it to the Sun, which was direct, and not as it is at present, inclin’d and oblique; and the Figure of it, which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now. From these three Differences flow’d a great many more, inferior and subordinate; and which had a considerable Influence upon the moral World at that Time, as well as the natural. But we will only observe here, their more immediate Effects, and that in reference to those general Characters or Properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise, which we have instanc’d in, and whereof we are bound to give an Account by our Hypothesis.
And in this respect the most Fundamental of those three Differences we mentioned, was that of the right Posture and Situation of the Earth to the Sun; for from this immediately follow’d a perpetual Æquinox all the Earth over, or, if you will, a perpetual Spring: And that was the great Thing we found wanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal, or capable of being so. Wherefore this being now found and establish’d in the Primitive Earth, the other two Properties of Longevity, and of spontaneous and vital Fertility, will be of more easy Explication. In the mean Time let us view a little the Reasons and Causes of that regular Situation in the first Earth.
The Truth is, one cannot so well require a Reason of the regular Situation the Earth had then, for that was most simple and natural; as of the irregular Situation it hath now, standing oblique and inclin’d to the Sun or the Ecliptick: Whereby the Course of the Year is become unequal, and we are cast into a great Diversity of Seasons. But however, stating the first aright with its Circumstances, we shall have a better Prospect upon the second, and see from what Causes, and in what Manner, it came to pass. Let us therefore suppose the Earth, with the rest of its fellow Planets, to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick, by the Motion of the liquid Heavens; and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular, having the same Center of its Magnitude and Gravity, it would by the Equality of its Libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick, both its Poles being equally inclin’d to the Sun. And this Posture I call a right Situation, as oppos’d to oblique or inclin’d; or a parallel Situation, if you please. Now this is a Thing that needs no Proof besides its own Evidence; for ’tis the immediate result and common Effect of Gravity or Libration, that a Body, freely left to it self in a fluid Medium, should settle in such a Posture as best answers to its Gravitation; and this first Earth whereof we speak, being uniform, and every way equally balanced, there was no Reason why it should incline at one End, more than at the other, towards the Sun. As if you should suppose a Ship to stand North and South under the Equator, if it was equally built and equally ballasted, it would not incline to one Pole or other, but keep its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Earth; but if the Ballast lay more at one End, it would dip towards that Pole, and rise proportionably higher towards the other. So those great Ships that sail about the Sun once a Year, or once in so many Years, whilst they are uniformly built and equally pois’d, they keep steady and even with the Axis of their Orbit; but if they lose that Equality, and the Center of their Gravity change, the heavier End will incline more towards the common Center of their Motion, and the other End will recede from it. So particularly the Earth, which makes one in that Aëry Fleet, when it scap’d so narrowly from being Shipwreckt in the great Deluge, was however so broken and disorder’d, that it lost its equal Poise, and thereupon the Center of its Gravity changing, one Pole became more inclin’d towards the Sun, and the other more remov’d from it, and so its right and parallel Situation which it had before, to the Axis of the Ecliptick, was chang’d into an Oblique; in which skew Posture it hath stood ever since, and is likely so to do for some Ages to come. I instance in this, as the most obvious Cause of the Change of the Situation of the Earth, though, it may be, upon this followed a Change in its Magnetism, and that might also contribute to the same Effect.
However, this Change and Obliquity of the Earth’s Posture had a long train of Consequences depending upon it; whereof that was the most immediate, that it alter’d the Form of the Year, and brought in that Inequality of Seasons, which hath since obtain’d: As, on the contrary, while the Earth was in its first and natural Posture, in a more easy and regular Disposition to the Sun, that had also another respective train of Consequences, whereof one of the first, and that which we are most concern’d in at present, was, that it made a perpetual Equinox or Spring to all the World, all the Parts of the Year had one and the same Tenor, Face and Temper; there was no Winter or Summer, Seed-Time or Harvest, but a continual Temperature of the Air and Verdure of the Earth. And this fully answers the first and fundamental Character of the Golden Age and of Paradise; and what Antiquity, whether Heathen or Christian, hath spoken concerning that perpetual Serenity and constant Spring that reign’d there, which in the one was accounted Fabulous, and in the other Hyperbolical, we see to have been really and philosophically true. Nor is there any Wonder in the Thing, the wonder is rather on our side, that the Earth should stand and continue in that forc’d Posture wherein it is now, spinning Yearly about an Axis, I mean that of the Equator, that doth not belong to the Orbit of its Motion; This, I say, is more strange than that it once stood in a Posture that was streight and regular; as we more justly admire the Tower at Pisa, that stands crook’d, than twenty other streight Towers that are much higher.
Having got this Foundation to stand upon, the rest of our Work will go on more easily; and the two other Characters which we mention’d, will not be of very difficult Explication. The spontaneous Fertility of the Earth, and its Production of Animals at that time, we have in some measure explain’d before, supposing it to proceed partly from the Richness of the primigenial Soil, and partly from this constant Spring and Benignity of the Heavens, which we have now establish’d: These were always ready to excite Nature, and put her upon Action, and never to interrupt her in any of her Motions or Attempts. We have shew’d in the fifth Chapter of the first Book, how this primigenial Soil was made, and of what Ingredients; which were such as compose the richest and fattest Soil, being a light Earth mix’d with unctuous Juices, and then afterwards refresh’d and diluted with the Dews of Heaven all the Year long, and cherish’d with a continual Warmth from the Sun. What more hopeful Beginning of a World than this? You will grant, I believe, that whatsoever degree, or whatsoever kind of Fruitfulness could be expected from a Soil and a Sun, might be reasonably expected there. We see great Woods and Forests of Trees rise spontaneously, and that since the Flood (for who can imagine that the ancient Forests, whereof some were so vastly great, were planted by the Hand of Man?) why should we not then believe that Fruit-trees and Corn rose as spontaneously in that first Earth? That which makes Husbandry and human Arts so necessary now for the Fruits and Productions of the Earth, is partly indeed the Decay of the Soil, but chiefly the Diversity of Seasons, whereby they perish, if care be not taken of them; but when there was neither Heat nor Cold, Winter nor Summer, every Season was a Seed-time to Nature, and every Season an Harvest.
This, it may be, you will allow as to the Fruits of the Earth, but that the same Earth should produce Animals also, will not be thought so intelligible. Since it hath been discover’d, that the first Materials of all Animals are Eggs, as Seeds are of Plants, it doth not seem so hard to conceive, that these Eggs might be in the first Earth, as well as those Seeds; for there is a great Analogy and Similitude betwixt them; especially if you compare these Seeds first with the Eggs of Insects or Fishes, and then with the Eggs of viviparous Animals. And as for those Juices which the Eggs of viviparous Animals imbibe thorough their Coats from the Womb, they might as well imbibe them, or something analogous to them, from a conveniently temper’d Earth, as Plant-Eggs do; and these Things being admitted, the Progress is much what the same in Seeds as Eggs, and in one sort of Eggs as in another.
’Tis true, Animal-Eggs do not seem to be fruitful of themselves, without the Influence of the Male; and this is not necessary in Plant-Eggs or vegetable Seeds. But neither doth it seem necessary in all Animal-Eggs, if there be any Animals sponte orta, as they call them, or bred without Copulation. And, as we observ’d before, according to the best Knowledge that we have of this Male influence, it is reasonable to believe, that it may be supplied by the Heavens or Æther. The Ancients, both the Stoicks and Aristotle, have suppos’d that there was something of an æthereal Element in the Malegeniture, from whence the Virtue of it chiefly proceeded; and if so, why may we not suppose, at that Time, some general Impression or Irradiation of that purer Element to fructify the new made Earth? Moses saith there was an Incubation of the Spirit of God upon the Mass, and without all doubt that was either to form or fructify it, and by the Mediation of this active Principle; but the Ancients speak more plainly with express mention of this Æther, and of the Impregnation of the Earth by it, as betwixt Male and Female. As in the Place before cited;