Chapter XIV: Book II (4)

SO much in short, concerning the natural World, inanimate or animate; we should now take a Prospect of the moral World of that time, or of the civil and artificial World; what the Order and Oeconomy of these was, what the Manner of Living, and how the Scenes of humane Life were different from ours at present. The Ancients, especially the Poets, in their Description of the golden Age, exhibit to us an Order of Things, and a Form of Life, very remote from any Thing we see in our Days; but they are not to be trusted in all Particulars; many times they exaggerate Matters on purpose, that they may seem more strange, or more great, and by that Means move and please us more. A _Moral_ or _Philosophick History_ of the World, well writ, would certainly be a very useful Work, to observe and relate how the Scenes of humane Life have chang’d in several Ages, the Modes and Forms of Living, in what Simplicity Men begun at first, and by what Degrees they came out of that Way, by Luxury, Ambition, Improvement, or Changes in Nature; then what new Forms and Modifications were superadded by the Invention of Arts, what by Religion, what by Superstition. This would be a View of Things more instructive, and more satisfactory, than to know what Kings reign’d in such an Age, and what Battles were fought, which common History teacheth, and teacheth little more. Such Affairs are but the little Under-plots in the Tragi comedy of the World; the main Design is of another Nature, and of far greater Extent and Consequence. But to return to the Subject.

As the animate World depends upon the inanimate, so the civil World depends upon them both, and takes its Measures from them; Nature is the Foundation still, and the Affairs of Mankind are a Superstructure that will be always proportion’d to it. Therefore we must look back upon the Model, or Picture, of their natural World, which we have drawn before, to make our Conjectures, or Judgment, of the civil and artificial, that were to accompany it. We observ’d from their perpetual Æquinox, and the Smoothness of the Earth, that the Air would be always calm, and the Heavens fair, no cold or violent Winds, Rains, or Storms, no Extremity of Weather in any kind, and therefore they would need little Protection from the Injuries of the Air, in that State; whereas now, one great Part of the Affairs of Life is to preserve our selves from those Inconveniencies, by Building and Cloathing. How many Hands, and how many Trades are employ’d about these two Things? Which then were in a manner needless, or at least in such Plainness and Simplicity, that every Man might be his own Workman. Tents and Bowers would keep them from all Incommodities of the Air and Weather, better than Stone Walls and strong Roofs defend us now; and Men are apt to take the easiest Ways of Living, till Necessity or Vice put them upon others that are more laborious, and more artificial. We also observ’d and prov’d, that they had no Sea in the primitive and antediluvian World, which makes a vast difference ’twixt us and them. This takes up half of our Globe, and a good part of Mankind is busied with Sea Affairs and Navigation. They had little need of merchandizing then, Nature supply’d them at Home with all Necessaries, which were few, and they were not so greedy of Superfluities as we are. We may add to these, what concern’d their Food and Diet; Antiquity doth generally suppose, that Men were not carnivorous in those Ages of the World, or did not feed upon Flesh, but only upon Fruit and Herbs. And this seems to be plainly confirm’d by Scripture; for after the Deluge, God Almighty gives _Noah_ and his Posterity a Licence to eat Flesh, (_Gen._ ix. 2, 3.) _Every moving Thing that liveth shall be Meat for you._ Whereas before, in the new-made Earth, God had prescrib’d them Herbs and Fruit for their Diet, (_Gen._ i. 29.) _Behold I have given you every Herb bearing Seed, which is upon the Face of all the Earth; and every Tree, in the which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed, to you it shall be for Meat._ And of this natural Diet they would be provided to their Hands, without further Preparation, as the Birds and the Beasts are.

UPON these general Grounds we may infer and conclude, that the civil World then as well as the natural, had a very different Face and Aspect from what it hath now; for of these Heads, Food and Cloathing, Building and Traffick, with that Train of Arts, Trades and Manufactures that attend them, the civil Order of Things is in a great Measure constituted and compounded; These make the Business of Life, the several Occupations of Men, the Noise and Hurry of the World; these fill our Cities, and our Fairs, and our Havens and Ports; yet all these fine Things are but the Effects of Indigency and Necessitousness, and were, for the most part, needless and unknown in that first State of Nature. The Ancients have told us the same Things in Effect; but telling us them without their Grounds, which they themselves did not know, they look’d like poetical Stories, and pleasant Fictions, and with most Men past for no better. We have shewn them in another Light, with their Reasons and Causes, deduc’d from the State of the natural World, which is the Basis upon which they stand; and this doth not only give them a just and full Credibility, but also lays a Foundation for After-thoughts, and further Deductions, when they meet with Minds dispos’d to pursue Speculations of this Nature.

AS for Laws, Government, natural Religion, Military and Judicial Affairs, with all their Equipage, which make an higher Order of Things in the civil and moral World, to calculate these upon the Grounds given, would be more difficult, and more uncertain; neither do they at all belong to the present Theory. But from what we have already observ’d, we may be able to make a better Judgment of those traditional Accounts which the Ancients have left us concerning these Things, in the early Ages of the World, and the primitive State of Nature. No doubt in these, as in all other Particulars, there was a great Easiness and Simplicity, in Comparison of what is now; we are in a more pompous, forc’d, and artificial Method, which partly the Change of Nature, and partly the Vices and Vanities of Men have introduc’d and establish’d. But these things, with many more, ought to be the Subject of a _Philosophick History_ of the World, which we mentioned before.

THIS is a short and general Scheme of the primæval World, compared with the modern; yet these things did not equally run thro’ all the Parts and Ages of it; there was a Declension and Degeneracy, both natural and moral, by Degrees, and especially towards the latter End; but the principal Form of Nature remaining till the Deluge and the Dissolution of the Heavens and Earth, till then also this civil Frame of Things would stand in a great Measure. And tho’ such a State of Nature, and of Mankind, when ’tis propos’d crudely, and without its Grounds, appear fabulous or imaginary, yet ’tis really in itself a State, not only possible, but more easy and natural, than what the World is in at present. And if one of the old antediluvian Patriarchs should rise from the Dead, he would be more surpriz’d to see our World in that Posture it is, than we can be by the Story and Description of his. As an _Indian_ hath more Reason to wonder at the _European_ Modes, than we have to wonder at their plain Manner of Living. ’Tis we that have left the Track of Nature, that are wrought and screw’d up into Artifices, that have disguis’d ourselves; and ’tis in our World that the Scenes are chang’d, and become more strange and fantastical.

I WILL conclude this Discourse with an easy Remark, and without any particular Application of it. ’Tis a strange Power that Custom hath upon weak and little Spirits, whose Thoughts reach no further than their Senses; and what they have seen and been us’d to, they make the Standard and Measure of Nature, of Reason, and of all _Decorum_. Neither are there any Sort of Men more positive and tenacious of their petty Opinions, than they are; nor more censorious, even to Bitterness and Malice. And ’tis generally so, that those that have the least Evidence for the Truth of their beloved Opinions, are most peevish and impatient in the Defence of them. This sort of Men are the last that will be made wise Men, if ever they be, for they have the worst of Diseases that accompany Ignorance, and do not so much as know themselves to be sick.

CHAP. VII.

_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.