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present, and inhabited by Mankind till the Deluge;
That it had those properties and conditions that we
have ascrib'd to it, namely, a perpetual Equinox or
Spring, by reason of its right situation to the Sun;
Was of an Oval Figure, and the exteriour face of it
smooth and uniform, without Mountains or a Sea.
That in this Earth stood Paradise; the doctrine
whereof cannot be understood but upon supposition
of this Primitive Earth, and its properties. Then that
the disruption and fall of this Earth into the Abysse,
which lay under it, was that which made the Universal Deluge, and the destruction of the Old World;
And that neither Noah's Flood, nor the present form
of the Earth can be explain'd in any other method
that is rational, nor by any other Causes that are intelligible. These are the Vitals of the Theory, and
the primary Assertions whereof I do freely profess my
full belief, and whosoever by solid reasons will show
me in an Errour, and undeceive me, I shall be very
much oblig'd to him. There are other lesser Conclusions which flow from these, and may be call'd Secondary, As that the Longævity of the Ante-diluvians depended upon their perpetual Equinox, and the
perpetual equality and serenity of the Air; That the
Torrid Zone in the Primitive Earth was uninhabitable; And that all their Rivers flow'd from the extreme parts of the Earth towards the Equinoctial;
there being neither Rain nor Rainbow in the temperate and habitable Regions of it; And lastly, that
the place of Paradise, according to the opinion of
Antiquity, was in the Southern Hemisphere. These,
I think, are all truly deduc'd and prov'd in their several ways, though they be not such essential parts of
the Theory as the former. There are also besides,
many particular Explications that are to be consider'd
with more liberty and latitude, and may be perhaps
upon better thoughts, or better observations, corrected, without any prejudice to the general Theory.
Those places of Scripture which we have cited, I
think, are all truly appli'd; and I have not mention'd
Moses's Cosmopceia, because I thought it deliver'd by
him as a Lawgiver, not as a Philosopher; which I in
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