Chapter XVII: Book II (7)

_In the third Place_, to make the Scenes of natural Providence considerable, and the Knowledge of them satisfactory to the Mind, we must take a true Philosophy, or the true Principles that govern Nature, which are Geometrical and Mechanical. By these you discover the Footsteps of the Divine Art and Wisdom, and trace the Progress of Nature Step by Step, as distinctly as in artificial things, where we see how the Motions depend upon one another, in what Order, and by what Necessity. God made all Things in _Number_, _Weight_ and _Measure_, which are Geometrical and Mechanical Principles; He is not said to have made Things by _Forms_ and _Qualities_, or any Combination of Qualities, but by these three Principles, which may be conceiv’d to express the Subject of three Mathematical Sciences, Number, of _Arithmetick_; Weight, of _Staticks_; and _Measure_ and Proportion, of _Geometry_: If then all things were made according to these Principles, to understand the Manner of their Construction and Composition, we must proceed in the Search of them by the same Principles, and resolve them into these again. Besides, the Nature of the Subject does direct us sufficiently; for when we contemplate or treat of Bodies, and the material World, we must proceed by the Modes of Bodies, and their real Properties, such as can be represented either to Sense or Imagination, for these Faculties are made for corporeal Things; but Logical Notions, when applied to particular Bodies, are meer Shadows of them, without Light or Substance. No Man can raise a Theory upon such Grounds, nor calculate any Revolutions of Nature, nor render any Service, or invent any thing useful in human Life. And accordingly we see, that for these many Ages, that this dry Philosophy hath govern’d Christendom, it hath brought forth no Fruit, produc’d nothing good to God or Man, to Religion or human Society.

TO these true Principles of Philosophy, we must join also the true System of the World. That gives Scope to our Thoughts, and rational Grounds to work upon; but the vulgar System, or that which _Aristotle_ and others have propos’d, affords no Matter of Contemplation. All above the Moon, according to him, is firm as Adamant, and as immutable; no Change or Variation in the Universe, but in those little Removes that happen here below, one Quality or Form shifting into another: There would therefore be no great Exercise of Reason or Meditation in such a World; no long Series of Providence: The Regions above being made of a kind of immutable Matter, they would always remain in the same Form, Structure, and Qualities: So as we might lock up that part of the Universe as to any further Inquiries, and we should find it ten thousand Years hence in the same Form and State wherein we left it. Then in this sublunary World there would be but small Doings neither; Things would lie in a narrow Compass, no great Revolution of Nature, no new Form of the Earth, but a few Anniversary _Corruptions_ and _Generations_, and that would be the short and the long of Nature, and of Providence, according to _Aristotle_. But if we consider the Earth, as one of those many Planets that move about the Sun, and the Sun as one of those innumerable fix’d Stars that adorn the Universe, and are the Centers of its greatest Motions; and all this subject to Fate and Change, to Corruptions and Renovations: This opens a large Field for our Thoughts, and gives a large Subject for the Exercise and Expansion of the Divine Wisdom and Power, and for the Glory of his Providence.

_In the last Place_; Having thus prepar’d your Mind, and the Subject, for the Contemplation of _Natural Providence_, do not content your self to consider only the present Face of Nature, but look back into the first _Sources_ of Things, into their more simple and original States; and observe the Progress of Nature from one Form to another, through various Modes and Compositions. For there is no single Effect, nor any single State of Nature, how perfect soever, that can be such an Argument and Demonstration of Providence, as a Period of Nature, or a Revolution of several States consequential to one another; and in such an Order and Dependance, that as they flow and succeed, they shall still be adjusted to the Periods of the moral World; so as to be ready always to be Ministers of the Divine Justice or Beneficence to Mankind. This shews the manifold Riches of the Wisdom and Power of God in Nature. And this may give us just Occasion to reflect again upon _Aristotle_’s System and Method, which destroys natural Providence in this respect also; for he takes the World as it is now, both for Matter and Form, and supposeth it to have been in this Posture from all Eternity, and that it will continue to Eternity in the same; so as all the great Turns of Nature, and the principal Scenes of Providence in the natural World are quite struck out; and we have but this one Scene for all, and a pitiful one too, if compar’d with the infinite Wisdom of God, and the Depths of Providence. We must take Things in their full Extent, and from their Origins, to comprehend them well, and to discover the Mysteries of Providence, both in the Causes and in the Conduct of them. That Method which _David_ followed in the Contemplation of the Little World, or in the Body of Man, we should also follow in the Great; take it in its first Mass, in its tender Principles and Rudiments, and observe the Progress of it to a compleat Form; in these first Stroaks of Nature are the Secrets of her Art; the Eye must be plac’d in this Point to have a right Prospect, and see her Works in a true Light. _David_ admires the Wisdom of God in the Origin and Formation of his Body; _My Body_, says he, _was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower Parts of the Earth; thine Eyes did see my Substance being yet imperfect, and in thy Book all my Members were written; which in Continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them, or being at first in no Form. How precious are thy Thoughts to me, O God! &c._ _Psal. cxxxix. 15, 16, 17._ This was the Subject of _David_’s, Meditations, how his Body was wrought from a shapeless Mass into that marvellous Composition which it had when fully fram’d; and this, he says, was under the Eye of God all along, and the Model of it, as it were, was design’d and delineated in the Book of Providence, according to which, it was by Degrees fashion’d and wrought to Perfection. _Thine Eyes did see my Substance yet being imperfect, in thy Book all my Members were drawn, &c._ _Job_ also hath aptly express’d those first Rudiments of the Body, or that little Chaos out of which it riseth; _Hast thou not poured me out as Milk, and cruddled me like Cheese? Thou hast cloathed me with Skin and Flesh, and fenced me with Bones and Sinews, Job x. 10, 11._ Where he notes the first Matter and the last Form of his Body, its compleat and most incompleat State. According to these Examples we must likewise consider the greater Bodies of Nature, the Earth and the sublunary World; we must go to the Origin of them, the Seminal Mass, the Chaos out of which they rise; look upon the World first as an Embryo World, without Form or Shape, and then consider how its Members were fashion’d, how by degrees it was brought into that Diversity of Parts and Regions which it consists of, with all their Furniture, and with all their Ornaments. The _Idea_ of all which was before-hand, according to _David_’s Expression, written in the Divine Mind; and we partake of that Wisdom, according to our Capacity, in seeing and admiring the Methods of it.

THESE seem to be necessary Preparatives or Directions to those that would contemplate, with Profit, natural Providence, and the great Works of God in the visible Creation. We consider’d Nature in the precedent Chapter abstractly, and in her self; and now we consider her under the Conduct of Providence, which we therefore call Natural Providence: And as we have endeavour’d to remove those false Notions and Suppositions that lay as Clouds upon her Face, so we must now endeavour to represent her in a better Light, and in a fuller Beauty. By _Natural Providence_ therefore we understand, _the Form or Course of Universal Nature, as actuated by the divine Power; with all the Changes, Periods, and Vicissitudes that attend it, according to the Method and Establishment made at first by the Author of it_. I said of _Universal Nature_, through all the Orders of Beings in the intellectual World, and all the Regions and Systems of Matter in the corporeal. For, having prov’d in the foregoing Chapter, that there is an Author of Nature, a Being infinitely perfect, by whose Power and Influence alone all finite Natures exist and act, we have an assured Ground to conclude, that nothing can come to pass, throughout the whole Creation, without the Prescience and Permission of its Author; and as it is necessary to suppose that there is an _Idea_ in the Divine Understanding of all the Mass of Beings produc’d or created, according to the several Ranks and Orders wherein they stand; so there is also an _Idea_ there, according to which this great Frame moves, and all the Parts of it in Beauty and Harmony.

AND these two Things, The _Essences_ of all Beings, and the Series of their _Motions_, compose the MUNDANE IDEA, as I may so call it; or that great all comprehensive Thought in the divine Understanding, which contains the System of universal Providence, and the State of all Things past, present, or to come. This glorious _Idea_ is the express Image of the whole Creation, of all the Works of God, and the Disposition of them: Here lie the Mysteries of Providence, as in their Original; the successive Forms of all Nature; and herein, as in a Glass, may be view’d all the Scenes of Time or Eternity. This is an Abyss of sacred Wisdom, the exhausted Treasure of all Science, the Root of Truth, and Fountain of intellectual Light; and in the clear and full Contemplation of this is perfect Happiness, and a truly beatifick Vision.

BUT what concerns the intellectual World in this _Idea_, and the Orders or Natures that compose it, is not our present Business to pursue; we are to speak of the corporeal Universe, whereof we will make now a short and general Survey, as it lies under Providence. The corporeal Universe, how immense soever it be, and divided into innumerable Regions, may be consider’d all as one System, made up of several subordinate Systems. And there is also one immense Design of Providence co-extended with it, that contains all the Fate, and all the Revolutions of this great Mass. This, I say, is made up of several subordinate Systems, involving one another, and comprehending one another, in greater and greater Orbs and Compositions; and the Aggregate of all these is that which we call the _Universe_. But what the Form of these Compositions is, and what the Design of Providence that runs thro’ them all, and comprehends them all, this is unsearchable, not only to humane Understanding, but even to Angels and Archangels.

WHEREFORE leaving those greater Systems and Compositions of the Universe, as Matter of our Admiration, rather than of our Knowledge; there are two or three kinds of lesser Systems that are visible to us, and bring us nearer to our Subject, and nearer home. _That_ of a fix’d Star single; _That_ of a fix’d Star with its Planets, and _that_ of a single Planet, primary or secondary. These three Systems we see and enjoy more or less. No doubt there are fix’d Stars single, or that have no Planets about them, as our Sun hath; nay ’tis probable, that at first the whole Universe consisted only of such Globes of liquid Fire, with Spheres about them, of pure Light and Æther: Earths are but the Dirt and Skum of the Creation, and all Things were pure as they came at first out of the Hands of God. But because we have nothing particular taught us, either by the Light of Nature or Revelation, concerning the Providence that governs these single Stars, of what Use they are to intellectual Beings, how animated by them, what Diversity there is amongst those æthereal Worlds, what Periods they have, what Changes or Vicissitudes they are capable to undergo, because such Inquiries would seem too remote, and carry us too far from our Subject, we leave these heavenly Systems to the Enjoyment and Contemplation of higher and more noble Creatures.

THE Sun, with all the Planets that move about him, and depend upon him, make a good Sort of System; not considerable indeed, if compar’d with the whole Universe, or some of the greater Compositions in it; but in respect of us, the System of the Sun is of vast Extent: We cannot measure the Greatness of his Kingdom, and his Dominion is without End. The Distance from the highest Planet to the nearest fixt Star in the Firmament is unmeasurable, and all this belongs to the Empire of the Sun; besides the several Planets and their Orbs, which cast themselves closer about his Body, that they may receive a warmer and stronger Influence from him; for by him they may be said to _live_ and _move_. But those vast Spaces that lie beyond these opaque Bodies, are Regions of perpetual Light; one Planet may Eclipse the Sun to another, and one Hemisphere of a Planet to the other Hemisphere makes Night and Darkness; but nothing can eclipse the Sun, or intercept the Course of his Light to these remote æthereal Regions; they are always luminous, and always pure and serene. And if the worst and planetary Parts of his Dominions be replenished with Inhabitants, we cannot suppose the better to lie as Desarts unenjoy’d and uninhabited; his Subjects then must be numerous, as well as his Dominions large; and in both respects this System of a fixt Star, with its Planets, (of which kind we may imagin innumerable in the Universe, besides this of the Sun, which is near and visible to us) is of a noble Character and Order, being the Habitation of Angels and glorified Spirits, as well as of mortal Men.

A planetary System is the last and lowest; and of these, no doubt, there is great Variety, and great Differences; not only of primary and secondary, or of the principal Planet, and its Moons or Attendants, but also amongst Planets of the same Rank; for they may differ both in their original Constitution, and according to the Form and State they are under at present; of which sort of Differences we have noted some amongst our Planets, (_Book. 1. chap. last, p. 113_, _&c._) tho’ they seem to be all of much-what the same original Constitution. Besides, according to external Circumstances, their Distance, Manner of Motion, and Posture to the Sun, which is the Heart of the whole System, they become different in many Things. And we may observe, that those leading Differences, tho’ they seem little, draw after them innumerable others, and so make a distinct Face of Nature, and a distinct World; which still shews the Riches and Fecundity of divine Providence, and gives new Matter of Contemplation to those that take Pleasure in studying the Works and Ways of God. But leaving all other Planets, or planetary Systems to our Meditations only, we must particularly consider our own.

HAVING therefore made this general Survey of the great Universe, run through the boundless Regions of it, and with much ado found our Way home to that little Planet where our Concerns lie, this Earth or sublunary World, we must rest here at the End of our Course. And having undertaken to give the general Theory of this Earth, to conclude the present Treatise, we’ll reflect upon the whole Work, and observe what Progress we have hitherto made in this Theory, and what remains to be treated of hereafter. This Earth, tho’ it be a small Part or Particle of the Universe, hath a distinct System of Providence belonging to it, or an Order establisht by the Author of Nature for all its _Phænomena_ (natural or moral) throughout the whole Period of its Duration, and every Interval of it; for, as there is nothing so great as to be above the divine Care, so neither is there any thing so little as to be below it. All the Changes of out World are fixt; How, or how often to be destroy’d, and how renew’d; What different Faces of Nature, and what of Mankind, in every Part of its Course; What new Scenes to adorn the Stage, and what new Parts to be acted; What the Entrance, and what the Consummation of all. Neither is there any sort of Knowledge more proper, or of more importance to us that are the Inhabitants of this Earth, than to understand this its natural and sacred History, as I may so call it, both as to what is past, and what is to come. And as those greater Volumes and Compositions of the Universe are proportion’d to the Understanding of Angels and superior Beings, so these little Systems are _Compendiums_ of the divine Wisdom more fitted to our Capacity and Comprehension.

THE Providence of the Earth, as of all other Systems, consists of two Parts, natural, and sacred or theological. I call that sacred or theological that respects Religion, and the Dispensations of it; the Government of the rational World, or of Mankind, whether under the Light of Nature only, or of a Revelation? the Method and Terms of their Happiness and Unhappiness in a future Life: The State, Oeconomy, and Conduct of this, with all the Mysteries contain’d in it, we call theological Providence; in the Head whereof stands the Soul of the blessed _Messiah_, who is Lord of both Worlds, intellectual and material. When we call the other Part of Providence _Natural_, we use that Word in a restrain’d Sense, as respecting only the material World; and accordingly this Part of Providence orders and superintends the State of the Earth, the great Vicissitudes and Mutations of it; for we must not imagin but that these are under the Eye of Providence, as well as humane Affairs, or any Revolutions of States and Empires. Now seeing both in the intellectual and corporeal World there are certain Periods, Fulness of Time, and fixt Seasons, either for some great Catastrophe, or some great Instauration; ’tis Providence that makes a due Harmony or Synchronism betwixt these two, and measures out the concurrent Fates of both Worlds, so as Nature may be always a faithful Minister of the divine Pleasure, whether for Rewards or Punishments, according as the State of Mankind may require. But theological Providence not being the Subject of this Work, we shall only observe, as we said before, what Account we have hitherto given of the natural State of the Earth, and what remains to be handled in another Treatise, and so conclude.

I did not think it necessary to carry the Story and Original of the Earth, higher than the Chaos, as _Zoroaster_ and _Orpheus_ seem to have done; but taking that for our Foundation, which Antiquity sacred and prophane doth suppose, and natural Reason approve and confirm, we have form’d the Earth from it. But when we say the Earth rose from a fluid Mass, it is not to be so crudely understood, as if a Rock of Marble, suppose, was fluid immediately before it became Marble; no, Things had a gradual Progression from one Form to another, and came at length to those more permanent Forms they are now settled in: Stone was once Earth, and Earth was once Mud, and Mud was once fluid. And so other Things may have another kind of Progression from Fluidity; but all was once Fluid, at least all the exterior Regions of this Earth. And even those Stones and Rocks of Marble which we speak of, seem to confess they were once soft or liquid, by those Mixtures we find in them of heterogeneous Bodies, and those Spots and Veins disperst thorough their Substance; for these Things could not happen to them after they were hard and impenetrable, in the Form of Stone or Marble. And if we can soften Rocks and Stones, and run them down into their first Liquors, as these Observations seem to do, we may easily believe that other Bodies also that compose the Earth were once in a fluid Mass, which is that we call a Chaos.

WE therefore watch’d the Motions of that Chaos, and the several Transformations of it, while it continued Fluid; and we found at length what its first Concretion would be, and how it settled into the Form of an habitable Earth. But that Form was very different from the present Form of the Earth, which is not immediately deducible from a Chaos by any known Laws of Nature, or by any Wit of Man; as every one, that will have Patience to examine it, may easily be satisfied. That first Earth was of a smooth, regular Surface, as the Concretions of Liquors are, before they are disturb’d or broken; under that Surface lay the great Abyss, which was ready to swallow up the World that hung over it, and about it, whensoever God should give the Command, and the Vault should break and this Constitution of the primæval Earth gave Occasion to the first Catastrophe of this World, when it perish’d in a Deluge of Water. For that Vault did break, as we have shewn at large, and by the Dissolution and Fall of it, the great Deep was thrown out of its Bed, forc’d upwards into the Air, and overflowed, in that impetuous Commotion, the highest Tops of the Fragments of the ruin’d Earth, which now we call its Mountains. And as this was the first great and fatal Period of Nature; so upon the Issue of this, and the Return of the Waters into their Channels, the second Face of Nature appear’d, or the present broken Form of the Earth, as it is _Terraqueous_, _Mountainous_, and _Cavernous_. These Things we have explain’d fully in the first Book, and I have thereby settled two great Points, given a rational Account of the _Universal Deluge_, and shewn the Causes of the irregular Form of the present or _Postdiluvian Earth_. This being done, we have apply’d our selves in the second Book, to the Description of the _Primæval Earth_, and the Examination of its Properties; and this hath led us by an easy Tract to the Discovery of _Paradise_, and of the true Notion and Mystery of it; which is not so much a Spot of Ground where a fine Garden stood, as a Course of Nature, or a peculiar State of the Earth; _Paradisiacal_ in many Parts, but especially in one Region of it; which Place or Region we have also endeavour’d to determine, though not so much from the Theory, as from the Suffrages of Antiquity, if you will take their Judgment.

THUS much is finish’d, and this contains the natural Theory of the Earth till this present Time; for since the Deluge all Things have continued in the same State, or without any remarkable Change. We are next to enter upon new Matter and new Thoughts, and not only so, but upon a Series of _Things and Times to come_, which is to make the second Part of this Theory. Dividing the Duration of the World into two Parts, past and future, we have dispatch’d the first and far greater Part, and come better half of our Way; And if we make a Stand here, and look both Ways, backwards to the Chaos and the Beginning of the World, and forwards to the End and Consummation of all Things, though the first be a longer Prospect, yet there are as many general Changes and Revolutions of Nature in the remaining Part, as have already happen’d; and in the Evening of this long Day the Scenes will change faster, and be more bright and illustrious. From the Creation to this Age the Earth hath undergone but one Catastrophe, and Nature hath had two different Faces. The next Catastrophe is the CONFLAGRATION, to which a new Face of Nature will accordingly succeed, _New Heavens_ and a _New Earth_, _Paradise_ renew’d, and so it is call’d the Restitution of Things, or _Regeneration_ of the World, Ἀποκατάσασις Γαλιγ ἐνεσία. And that Period of Nature and Providence being expir’d, then follows the _Consummation of all Things_, or the general _Apothesis_; _when Death and Hell shall be swallowed up in Victory_. When the great Circle of Time and Fate is run; or according to the Language of Scripture, _When the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away, and Time shall be no more._

* * * * *

_MAY we, in the mean time, by a true Love of God above all Things, and a Contempt of this vain World which passeth away; by a careful Use of the Gifts of God and Nature, the Light of Reason and Revelation, prepare our selves, and the State of Things, for the great Coming of our Saviour._ To whom be Praise and Honour for evermore.

_FINIS._

● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the sections in which they are
referenced.