Philofophical Meditations,

WITH

Divine Inferences.

VOL. II.

W

HEN God had created the Heavens and the Earth, and beheld all his Works, he pronounced them very good, that is, in a State of Purity; the Continuation in which then depended upon the keeping or violating a Law given unto the Governor or Head of the Creation, MAN; who (as I have fhewed in my former Difcourfe) being endued with Reafon and Freedom of Will, was capable to have kept the Law given him; which if he had, all things upon this Globe had remained in their Primitive Purity; which fince have been fubjected to Vanity, and have undergone feveral Changes and Altera

B 3

tions,

tions, thro' Man's Deviation from his Original Creation; for Man's Difobedience has unhinged the Order and Harmony of the whole Creation, that he was made the Governor of, whereby all things in this Present State have been reduced to continual Decay and Changeableness, and will continue with Variety of Alterations and Inftability until the last and final Change to be expected; when all Subjection to Change and Alteration shall be wholly removed, by a Removal of all the Causes of Imperfection, and a Reftitution of all things by Chrift.

From a View therefore of the Purity of the firft Eftate of the Creation, and the feveral Disorders that have enfued on Man's Difobedience, I fhall endeavour to fet forth the great Obligations we are under to an Obedience to the Second Covenant God has, thro' his Son, made with fall'n Man, from the Confideration of God's great Love and Mercy in offering much greater Happiness to an Obedience to the fecond Covenant, than that was which was loft by a Tranfgreffion of the first. In purfuing which Design I fhall,

First, Take a View of the primitive Purity of the Creation.

Secondly, Of the Change that enfued upon Man's Difobedience.

Thirdly, Of the further Changes that fucceeded the Deluge, with Lamech's Prophecy concerning his Son Noah confidered: Gen. v. 29. This fame fhall comfort us, concerning

our

our Work and Toil of our Hands, because of the Ground which the Lord hath curfed.

Fourthly, I fhall enquire into the last and final Change to be expected by the General Conflagration, after which all Subjection to Change and Alteration will be wholly removed.

And lastly, I fhall confider the State of the Bleffed in a New Heaven and New Earth, defcribed by St. John in the 21ft Chapter of his Revelations.

F

SECT. I.

Of the primitive State of the

Creation.

IRST then I am to take a View of the primitive Purity of the Creation of this Globe; which we find in its Original State was free from any Annoyances or Offenfiveness either in its Surface or Atmosphere, all destructive Particles and Effluvias being lodged in the Bowels of the Earth, and confined from their Noxiousness in the Earth's Formation : For when it was produced out of its Original Chaos, or State of confused Fluidity, the Spirit of God moving upon the Face of the Waters, or the extreme Parts of this Chaos, in its rude and undigested Form, takes proper Care to secure all offenfive and noxious Particles in

fuch proper Confinement, as fhould either fo continue never to become deftructive, without an Occafion given by the Actions of his Reafonable Creature Man; or elfe were fo fituated. that upon any sufficient Cause of Man's Deviation from his original Purity, they might be employed to fulfil and execute the confequential Defigns of Divine Juftice; for the Departure of Man from his Original State, the whole Creation of this Globe should lose all its Purity of Earth, Air, and Waters, and all things fhould become liable to Change and fubject to Alteration; fo that all Stability would by Man's Obedience or Disobedience be continued or loft.

upon

For as the Spirit of God did move upon the Face of the Waters, in the Formation of this Globe, there can remain no doubt but that its Production must be pure, yet capable to anfwer all the Ends of infinite Wisdom, whether for Rewards to Obedience or Punishments to Difobedience.

And now let us take a tranfient View of the fhort Enjoyment of our first Parents primitive Happiness: In which Estate I fhall fhew the Probability of Mr. Whifton's Hypothefis of Days and Years being fynonimous, or that before their Fall the Earth had only an Annual Motion, without a Diurnal Rotation; which being fufficiently proved by him, to be no ways contrary to Scripture but agreeable to it, in his Theory of the Earth, it only remains that I prove it commodious to that State and agreeable