Sacred Theory of the Earth: Book II: Chapter IX

You will say, it may be, though this account, as to the Books and Learning of the Heathen, may be lookt upon as reasonable, yet we might expect however, from the Jewish and Christian Authors, a more full and satisfactory account of that Primitive Earth, and of the Old World. First, as to the Jews, ’tis well known that they have no ancient Learning, unless by way of Tradition, amongst them. There is not a Book extant in their Language, excepting the Canon of the Old Testament, that hath not been writ since our Saviour's time. They are very bad Masters of Antiquity, and they may in some measure be excus’d, because of their several captivities, dispersions, and desolations. In the Babylonish captivity their Temple was ransack’d, and they did not preserve, as is thought, so much as the Autograph or original Manuscript of the Law, nor the Books of those of their Prophets that were then extant, and kept in the Temple; And at their return from the Captivity after seventy years, they seem to have had forgot their Native Language so much, that the Law was to be interpreted to them in Chaldee, after it was read in Hebrew; for so I understand that interpretation in Nehemiah. ’Twas a great Providence, methinks, that they should any way preserve their Law, and other Books of Scripture, in the Captivity, for so long a time; for ’tis likely they had not the liberty of using them in any publick worship, seeing they return’d so ignorant of their own Language, and, as ’tis thought, of their Alphabet and Character too. And if their Sacred Books were hardly preserv’d, we may easily believe all others perisht in that publick desolation.

Yet there was another destruction of that Nation, and their Temple, greater than this, by the Romans; and if there were any remains of Learning preserv’d in the former ruine, or any recruits made since that time, this second desolation would sweep them all away. And accordingly we see they have nothing left in their Tongue, besides the Bible, so ancient as the destruction of Jerusalem. These and other publick calamities of the Jewish Nation, may reasonably be thought to have wasted their Records of ancient Learning, if they had any; for, to speak truth, the Jews are a people of little curiosity, as to Sciences and Philosophical enquiries: They were very tenacious of their own customs, and careful of those Traditions that did respect them, but were not remarkable, that I know of, or thought great Proficients in any other sort of Learning. There has been a great

Thus much concerning the Jews. As for Christian Authors, their knowledge must be from some of these fore-mention’d, Jews or Heathens; or else by Apostolical Tradition: For the Christian Fathers were not very speculative, so as to raise a Theory from their own thoughts and contemplations, concerning the Origin of the Earth. We have instanc’d, in the last Chapter, in a Christian Tradition, concerning Paradise, and the high situation of it, which is fully consonant to the site of the Primitive Earth, where Paradise stood, and doth seem plainly to refer to it, being unintelligible upon any other supposition. And ’twas, I believe, this elevation of Paradise, and the pensile structure of that Paradisiacal Earth, that gave occasion to Celsus, as we see by Origen's answer, to say, that the Christian Paradise was taken from the pensile Gardens of Alcinous: But we may see now what was the ground of such expressions or Traditions amongst the Ancients, which Providence left to keep mens minds awake; not fully to instruct them, but to confirm them in the truth, when it should come to be made known in other methods. We have noted also above, that the ancient Books and Authors amongst the Christians, that were most likely to inform us in this Argument, have perisht, and are lost out of the World, such as Ephrem Syrus de ortu rerum, and Tertullian de Paradiso; and that piece which is extant, of Moses Bar Cepha's upon this subject, receives more light from our Hypothesis, than from any other I know; for correcting some mistakes about the Figure of the Earth, which the Ancients were often guilty of, the obscurity or confusion of that Discourse in other things, may be easily rectifi’d, if compar’d with this Theory.

Of this nature also is that Tradition that is common both to Jews and Christians, and which we have often mention’d before, that there was a perpetual serenity,

Thus much may serve for a short Survey of the ancient Learning, to give us a reasonable account, why the memory and knowledge of the Primitive Earth should be so much lost out of the World; and what we retain of it still; which would be far more, I do not doubt, if all Manuscripts were brought to light, that are yet extant in publick or private Libraries. The truth is, one cannot judge with certainty, neither what things have been recorded and preserv’d in the monuments of Learning, nor what are still; not what have been, because so many of those Monuments are lost: The Alexandrian Library, which we spoke of before, seems to have been the greatest Collection that ever was made before Christianity, and the Constantinopolitan (begun by Constantine, and destroy’d in the Fifth Century, when it was rais’d to the number, as is said, of one hundred twenty thousand Volumes) the most valuable that was ever since, and both these have been permitted by Providence to perish in the merciless Flames. Besides those devastations of Books and Libraries that have been made in Christendom, by the Northern barbarous Nations overflowing Europe, and the Saracens and Turks great parts of Asia and Africk. It is hard therefore to pronounce what knowledge hath been in the World, or what accounts of Antiquity; Neither can we well judge what remain, or of what things the memory may be still latently conserv’d; for besides those Manuscripts that are yet unexamin’d in these parts of Christendom, and those that have been scarce view’d in the great Abyssine or Æthiopick Library, there are many, doubtless, of good value in other parts; and we know particularly of two fam’d Libraries, that of Buda, and that of Fez, both in the hands of Mahometans; who keep them as the Dragon did the Golden Apples, will neither make use of them themselves, nor suffer others to peruse them. The Library of Fez is said to contain thirty two thousand Volumes in

Give me leave to conclude the whole Discourse with this general Consideration; ’Tis reasonable to suppose, that there is a Providence in the conduct of Knowledge, as well as of other affairs on the Earth; and that it was not design’d that all the mysteries of Nature and Providence should be plainly and clearly understood throughout all the Ages of the World; but that there is an Order establisht for this, as for other things, and certain Periods and Seasons; And what was made known to the Ancients only by broken Conclusions and Traditions, will be known (in the later Ages of the World) in a more perfect way, by Principles and Theories. The increase of Knowledge being that which changeth so much the face of the World, and the state of Humane affairs, I do not doubt but there is a particular care and superintendency for the conduct of it; by what steps and degrees it should come to light, at what Seasons and in what Ages; what evidence should