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 last books, concerning the burning of the world, and concerning the new heavens and new earth.

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 last books, concerning the burning of the world, and concerning the new heavens and new earth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$as in a fucceflion of States : fitted to receive one another according to the difpofitions of the Moral World, and the order of Divine Providence* Wherefore Plato's argument from the Divine Attri- butes, all things confider’d, doth rather prove a fucceifion of Worlds, than that one fingle World fhould remain the fame throughout ah ages, without change or variation. Next to the Platmifts, the Stoicks were moil confiderable in matters relating to Morality and Providence : And their opinion, in this cafe, is well known * they being lookt upon by the Moderns, as the principal authors of the dodrine of the Conflagration. Nor is it lefs known that the School of Democritus and Epicurus made all their Worlds fubjed to dilfolu- tion ל and by a new concourfe of Atomes reftor’d them again. Laftly, The Icnick. Philofophers, who had Thales for their Mailer, and were the firft Naturalifts amongft the Greek,s, taught the fame dodrine. We have indeed but an imperfed account left us of this Sed, and ,tis great pity * for as it was one of the moil ancient, fo it feems to have been one of the moil confiderable amongft the Greeks for Natural Philofophy. In thofe remains which Diogenes Laertius hath preferv’d, of Anaxagoras, Anaximenes, Archclaus,&c. All great men in their time, we find that they treated much of the Origin of the World, and had many extraordinary Notions about it, which come lame and defedive to us. The dodrine of their Founder, Thales, which made all things to confift of Water, feems to have a great refemblance to the dodrine of Mofes and S:Peter, about the conftitution of the Firft Heavens and Earth. But there is little in Laertius what their.opinion was about the Diftblution of the World. Other Authors inform us more of that. .SV0Lc«.r joyns them with Leucippus־ and. the Epicureans: Simplicius with Heracli- tus and the Stoickj, in this dodrine about the corruptibility of the World. So that all the Schools of the Greek Philofophers, as we noted before, were unanimous in this point, excepting the Peripd- teticks\ whofe Mafter, Ariflotle, had neither modefty enough to fol- low the dodrine of his Predeceflors, nor wit enough to invent any thing better. :/·· Befides thefe Seds of Philofophers, there were Theologers amongft the Greek/, more ancient than thefe Seds, and more myftical. e< tvMci, Ariflotle often diftinguiiheth the Naturalifts and the Theologues. Such η* Μλο-μί. were 0ypheus and his followers, who had more of the Ancient Oriental Learning than the fucceeding Philofophers. But they writ their Philofophy, or Theology rather, Mythologically and Poeti- tically, in'Parables and Allegories, that needed an interpretation. All thefe Theologers fuppofed the Earth to rife from a Chaos: and as they faid that Love was the principle at firft, that united the loofe and fevered Elements, and formed them into an Habitable World: So they fuppofed that if Strife or Contenfion pfevaiPd, that would again diftolve and difunite them, and reduce thifigs into a Chaos: Such as the Earth will be in, upon the Confiagra* tion. And itfurther appears, that both thefe Orders of the Learn- ed in >Greece fuppos’d this prefent frame ot Nature'might periffr? by their: dodrine of Periodical Revolutions, or of the Renovation of the World after certain periods of time: which wasV dodrine common Gen. i. z Pet. 2. y. Έά. Phyf. 1. I. G* 24׳s$