from the creation of the fun, with the other great luminaries, on the fourth day; whereby day and night were equally divided into twelve hours each; And this divifion having continued till the flood, a more unequal and variable divifion took place afterwards; which was attended with advantages suitable to the fucceeding state of the earth; and therefore was inferted as part of the grant then conferred upon the inhabitants of the new world.

But here it will be replied, That this would be the grant of a change for the worfe That a perpetual equinox, refulting from a coincidence of the equator and ecliptic, would be attended with a perpetual spring, and perpetual autumn, producing all manner of fruits, at all seasons of the year; without labour and toil-That in this ftate likewife there would be a conftant ferenity of weather, and an equal temperature of the air at all times: And that there actually was fuch a state in the antediluvian world, whence the lon

gevity of mankind in that age is accounted for: All which is quite contrary to the fuppofition of any curfe, and much preferable to the ftate after the flood.

That fuch a state, under fuch a confti

tution of nature, did really exist for some time, in the infancy of the world, I readily admit. It was conjectured, that paradife was fituated at the mouth of the Euphrates, about 27 degrees of north latitude *; which was a very temperate climate, and fitted for rendering its inhabitants happy in the enjoyment of all the bleffings of their fituation. But I cannot allow, that a perpetual equinox would alone be productive of all the happy circumstances above recounted; much lefs would it of itself conftitute fuch a golden age, as would answer the descriptions of poets; or even the opinions of philofophers. There must have been a coincidence of all happy circumftances to form such a state. Such there was, when the

world came firft out of the hands of the Creator; and fuch it continued to be, as long as man continued in his innocence: But immediately upon the forfeiture of it, every thing took an unhappy turn: The ground loft its fertility; the air its ferenity: The heavens withdrew their kind and propitious influence, and the fruits of the earth degenerated: Huge mountains appeared: Winds, rain, ftorms, and tempefts, were generated: The weather grew uncertain, and often unfavourable and fevere. When the fun was always in the equator, the torrid zone must have been uninhabitable, for heat; and the two frigid zones, for cold: They were thought fo for many ages after the fun moved in the ecliptic for certain: Though from the teftimony of late travellers, and particulary of Sir Walter Raleigh, the parts under, and near the line, are as fruitful, heathful, and pleasant, and as fit to make a paradife of, as any in the world.

In the old world, probably a much smaller part of the earth was habitable than at present.

Notwithstanding the conftancy with which the heavenly bodies performed their motions; there was no conftant tenour of any thing upon earth to be depended upon: Our own daily experience may convince us of the uncertainty there is in the operation of all fecond caufes. Mr. Whifton justly obferves, that the fun is not master of the feafons of the year. In our own climate, we often feel the extremes of heat and cold, within the compass of a few days, sometimes hours. We rise in June, and go to bed in January. The temper of the air doth not depend upon the season of the year alone; but upon the winds, and other adventitious caufes. Why, therefore, might not the fame caufes have the fame effects in the old world? In the warmest climates, within the tropics, where there is the leaft variety of feafons, and which come nearest to the fuppofed

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fuppofed equability of the antediluvian ftate; there are often felt fudden changes from one extreme to another, and the greatest perhaps that are in the whole globe: And they are far from reaping all the advantages, which may be imagined to refult from fuch fituations. In the ifland of Barbadoes, and fome other places near the equator; where there is little, or no variety of feafons, or alteration of the fun's heat; they fuffer however many inconveniences. They are fubject to hurricanes, earthquakes, thunder and lightning, exceffive rains, fultry heat, feculent and unwholesome air, and great mortalities. In most of these parts they have their different feafons likewife. Nay there are known to be fome countries under the fame parallel, to which the fun is nearly vertical; which notwithstanding have feafons differing from the heavens, and from each other. Malabar and Coromandel lie in the fame latitude, are divided from each other only by the Gata mountains; and

are