The theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth, and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo till the consummation of all things. The two first books concerning the deluge, and concerning paradise.

Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715.

Date:: 1697

Credit: The theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth, and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo till the consummation of all things. The two first books concerning the deluge, and concerning paradise. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$City was to be deitroyed ? Had not this been a far eafier thing, and more compendious, than the great Preparations he made of a large VeiTcl, _ with Rooms for the Reception and Accommodation of Beads and Birds ? And now I mention Birds, why could not they at ieaft have flown into the next dry Country? they might have pearch d upon the Trees, and the tops of the Mountains by the waj to have refted themfelves if they were weary, for the Waters did not all of a fudden rife to the Mountains tops. I cannot but look upon the Deluge as a much more confiderable thing than thefe Authors would reprefent it, and as a kind of diffolution of Nature. Mofes calls it a deftroying of the Earth, as well as of Mankind, Gen. 6. 13. And the Bow was fet in'the Cloud to feal the Covenant, that he would deflroy the Earth no more, Gen. 9. ir. or that there ihould be no more a Flood to deftrey the Earth. And ’tis faid, verfe 15. that the Covenant was made be¬ tween God and the Earth, or this frame of Nature, that it ihould peri ill no more by Water. And the Rain-bow, which was a To¬ ken and pledge of tills Covenant, appears not only in fatUa, or feme other Afiatick Provinces', but to all the Regions of the Earth, who had an equal fhare and concern in it. Mofes faith alfo the Fountains of the grear Abyfs were burft afunder to make the De¬ luge, and what means this Abyfs and the burftirig of it, if retrain’d to Judaa, or fome adjacent Countries ? What appearance is there of this Difruption there, more than in other Places ? Further¬ more, S. Peter plainly implies, that the Antediluvian Heavens and ^ Εφ Earth perifh’d in the Deluge 5 and oppofeth the preferit Earth and Heavens to them, as different and of another conftitution: and faith, that thefe fhall perifh by Fire, as the other perifh’d by Water. So he compares the Conflagration with the Dehige, as two general diifolutions of Nature, and one may as well fay, that the Conflagration fhall be only National, and but two or three Countries burnt in that laft Fire, as to fay that the Deluge wasfo. I confefs that difeourfe of S. Peter, concerning the feveraf States of the World, would fufficiently convince me, if there was nothing rife, That the Deluge was not a particular or National Inunda* tion, but a mundane change, that extended to the whole Earth, and both to the ( lower) Heavens and Earth. All Antiquity, we know, hath fpoke of thefe Mundane Revolu¬ tions or Periods, that the World ihould be fucceffively deftroy’dby Water and Fire f and I do not doubt but that this Deluge of Noah's, which Mofes deferibes, was the firft and leading inftance of this kind : and accordingly we fee that after this Period, and after the Flood, the blefftng for multiplication, and for repleniihing the Earth with Inhabitants, was as folemnly pronounc’d by God Al¬ mighty, as at the firft Creation of Man, Gen. 9· 1. with Gen. 1. 28. Thefe confederations, I think, might be fufticient to give us aflu- rance from Divine Writ of the univerfality of the Deluge, and yet Mojes affords us another argument as demonftrative as any, when in the Hiftory of the Deluge, he faith, Gen.7.19. The waters ex¬ ceedingly prevailed upon the Edrth\:and all the high Hills that were un¬ der the whole: Heaitens ivere covered. All the h igh Hills, he faith,$