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The sacred 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 ... / [Thomas Burnet].

  • Burnet, Thomas, Sir, 1632?-1715?
Date:
1719
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sacred 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 ... / [Thomas Burnet]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other, at its Change. Yet he Teems now to be fenfible of the Abfurdity of this Do£lrine, and therefore will not own it to have bee obis Senfs ^ and as an Argument that be meant otherwife, he alledges, that he declared be- fore, that by the Earth’s right Situation to the Sun, is meant that the Axis of the Earth was always kept in a pa- rallelifm to that of the Ecliptick^ p. 61. But what’s this to the purpofe ? This (peaks only of the Site of the Earth, whereas his Error was In fuppafing its Courfe or annual Orbit about the Sun, as well as its Site upon its own Axis, to have been different, and changed at the De¬ luge : As his Words already produced againft him, plain¬ ly teftify. What follows in this Chapter is concerning the per¬ petual Equinox. And as to the reafoning Part of what he fays in defence of his Exceptions, we do not grudge him the Benefit of it, let it do him what fervice it can. And as to the hiftoricai Part, he will not allow a Wit- nefs to be a good Witnefs as to Matter ofFaft, if he did not aflign true Caufes of that Matter of Fa<R. To which I only reply, tho’ Tiverton Steeple was not the caufe ©f Goodwin Sands, as the Kentijh Men thought, yet their Teftimony was fo far good, That there were fuch Sands, and fuch a Steeple. He alfo commits an Errour as to the nature of Tradition. When a Tradition is to be made out, it is not expefted that it fhould be made ap¬ pear that none were ignorant of that Tradition in for¬ mer Ages: Or that all that mentioned it,underflood the true Grounds and Extent of it *, but it is enough to fhew the plain Foot-fleps of it in Antiquity,as a Concluiion, though they did not know the Realons and Premifes upon which it depended. For inffance, the Conflagra¬ tion of the World is a Doftrine of Antiquity, traditio¬ nally delivered from Age to Age *, but the Caufes and manner of the Conflagration, they either did not know or have not deliver’d to us. In like manner that the firfl Age and State of the World was without change of Sea- Tons, or under a perpetual Equinox, of this we Tee ma¬ ny Foot-fleps in Antiquity, amongft the Jews, ChriIli¬ ans, Heathens: Poets, PhiloTophers *, but the Theory of this perpetual Equinox, the Caufes aud manner of it, we neither find, nor can reafonably expert, from the Antients. So much for the Equinox. This