Sect. I
The First Question is, Whether there be any thing in Nature, which may prove and demonstrate, or probably argue and infer a future Dissolution? To which I answer, That I think there is nothing in Nature which doth necessarily demonstrate a future Dissolution: but that Position of the Peripatetick Schools may, for ought I know, be true Philosophy, Posito ordinario Dei concursu mundus posset durare in aeternum. Supposing the ordinary concourse of God [with second Causes] the World might endure for ever. But though a future Dissolution by Natural Causes, be not demonstrable; yet some possible, if not probable, Accidents there are, which, if they should happen, might infer such a dissolution. Those are Four: The possibility of 1. The Waters again overflowing and covering the Earth. 2. The Extinction of the Sun. 3. The Eruption of the Central Fire enclosed in the Earth. 4. The Driness and Inflammability of the Earth under the Torrid Zone, and the Eruption of all the Vulcano’s at once.
But before I treat of these, it will not be amiss, a little to consider the old Argument for the Worlds Dissolution, and that is, its daily Consenescence and Decay: which, if it can be proved, will in process of time, necessarily infer a Dissolution. For as the Apostle saith in another case, That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away, Hebr. 8. 13. That which continually wastes, will at last be quite consumed: that which daily grows weaker and weaker, will in time lose all its force. So the Age, and Stature and Strength of Man, and all other Animals, every Generation decreasing, they will in the end come to nothing. And that all these, and all other things do successively diminish and decay in all Natural Perfections and Qualities, as well as Moral, hath been the received Opinion, not only of the Vulgar, but even of Philosophers themselves from Antiquity down to our times. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 16. In plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi minorem indies mensuram staturae propemodum observatur: rarosque patribus proceriores consumente ubertatem seminum exustione; in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum. In sum; It is observed that the measure of the stature of all Mankind decreases and grows less daily: and that there are few taller then their Parents; the burning (to which the Age inclines) consuming the Luxury of the Seeds. Terra malos homines nunc educ at que pusillos. Juvenal. Sat. The Earth now breeds Men bad and small. And Gellius Noct. Att. lib. 3. c. 10. Et nunc quasi jam mundo senescente rerum atque hominum decrementa sunt. And now, as if the World waxed old, there is a decrement or decay both of Things and Men· I might accumulate places out of the Ancients and Moderns to this purpose, but that hath been already done by others.
But this Opinion, how general soever it was formerly, was inconsiderately and without sufficient ground, taken up at first; and afterwards without due examination embraced and followed; as appears by Dr. Hakewil’s Apology, wherein it is so fundamentally confuted; that it hath since been rejected by all considerate Persons. For that Author hath at large demonstrated, that neither the pretended decay of the Heavenly Bodies in regard of Motion, Light, Heat or Influence; or of any of the Elements: neither the pretended decay of Animals, and particularly and especially of Mankind, in regard of Age and Duration, of Strength and Stature, of Arts and Wits, of Manners and Conversation, do necessarily infer any decay in the World, or any tendency to a Dissolution. For though there be at times great Changes of Weather, as long continuing Droughts, and no less lasting Rains; excessive Floods and Inundations of the Sea; prodigious Tempests and Storms of Thunder, Lightning and Hail; which seem to threaten the ruin of the World; violent and raging Winds, Spouts and Hurricanes, which turn up the Sea to the very bottom, and spread it over the Land; formidable and destructive Earthquakes, and furious Eruptions of Vulcano’s or burning Mountains, which waste the Country far and wide, overwhelming or subverting great Cities, and burying the Inhabitants in their ruins, or as the Scripture speaks, Making of a City a heap, of a defenced City a ruin. Though these and many other Changes do frequently happen, at uncertain Seasons as to us, yet are they so ordered by the wise Providence of the Almighty Creatour and Governour of the World, as nearly to balance one another, and to keep all things in an Aequilibrium; so that as it is said of the Sea, that what it gains in one place, it loses in another, it may be said proportionably of the other Elements and Meteors; That, for Example, a long Drought in one Place is compensated probably at the same time by as long a Rain in another; and at another time, the Scene being changed, by as durable a Drought in this, as lasting a Rain in that. The same may be said of violent and continuing Heats and Colds in several Places, that they have the like Vicissitudes and Changes, whereby in the whole they so balance and counterpoise one another, that neither prevails over other, but continue and carry on the World as surely and steddily, as if there were no such Contrarieties and Fights, no such Tumults and Commotions among them. The only Objection against this Opinion, is the Longaevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs, and of some also (I mean the first) of the Postdiluvian. For immediately after the Flood the Age of Man did gradually decrease every Generation in great proportions? so that had it continued so to do at that rate, the Life of Man had soon came to nothing. Why it should at last settle at Threescore and ten Years, as a mean Term; and there continue so many Ages, without any further Change and Diminution, is, I confess, a Mystery too hard for me to reveal: However, there must be a great and extraordinary Change at the time of the Flood, either in the Temperature of the Air, or Quality of the Food, or in the Temper and Constitution of the Body of Man, which induced this decrement of Age. That the Temper and Constitution of the Bodies of the Antediluvians was more firm and durable than that of their Posterity after the Flood: and that this Change of Term of Life was not wholly to be attributed to Miracle, may both be demonstrated from the gradual decrease of the Age of the Postdiluvians. For had it been miraculous, why should not the Age of the very first Generation after the Flood have been reduced to that Term? And what account can we give of their holding out for some Generations against the Inconveniencies of the Air, or deteriority of Diet, but the strength and firmness of their Constitutions? which yet was originally owing to the Temperature of the Air, or Quality of their Diet, or both; seeing a Change in these (for there was no other visible Cause) did by degrees prevail against, and impair it. What influence the lying so long of the Water upon the Earth might have upon the Air and Earth, in changing them for the worse, and rendring them more unfit for the maintenance and continuance of Humane Life, I will not now dispute. But whatever might be the Cause of the Longaevity of the Antediluvians, and the contracting of the Age of the Postdiluvians, it is manifest, that the Age of these did at the last settle, as I said, at or about the Term of Threescore and ten, and hath there continued for Three thousand years without any diminution.