WE need add no more here in particular against this _Aristotelian_ Doctrine, that makes the present Form of the Earth to have been from Eternity; for the Truth is, this whole Book is one continued Argument against that opinion; shewing that it hath _de facto_ chang’d its Form; both in that we have prov’d that it was not capable of an universal Deluge in this Form, and consequently was once under another; and also in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the Third and Fourth Sections, that it hath been broken and dissolv’d. We might also add one Consideration more, that if it had stood always under this Form, it would have been under Fire, if it had not been under Water; and the Conflagration, which it is to undergo, would have overtaken it long ere this. For St. _Peter_ saith, The Heavens and the Earth that are now, as oppos’d to the Antediluvian, and consider’d in their present Form and Constitution, are fitted to be consumed by Fire. And whosoever understands the Progress and Revolutions of Nature, will see that neither the present Form of the Earth, nor its first Form, were permanent and immutable Forms, but transient and temporary by their own Frame and Constitution; which the Author of Nature, after certain Periods of Time, had design’d for Change and for Destruction. THUS much for the Body of the Earth, that it could not have been from Eternity, as _Aristotle_ pretended, in the Form it hath. Now let’s consider the Origination of Mankind; and that we shall find could much less be Eternal than the other; for whatsoever destroy’d the Form of the Earth, would also destroy Mankind; and besides, there are many particular Marks and Arguments, that the Generations of Men have not been from Everlasting. All History, and all Monuments of Antiquity, of what kind soever, are but of a few Thousand of Years date; we have still the Memory of the Golden Age, of the first State of Nature, and how Mortals liv’d then in Innocency and Simplicity. The Invention of Arts, even those that are necessary or useful to Human Life, hath been within the Knowledge of Men: How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients, how imperfect their Knowledge of the Earth, how imperfect their Navigation? Can we imagine, if there had been Men from Everlasting, a Sea as now, and all materials for shipping as much as we have, that Men could have been so ignorant, both of the Land and of the Sea, as ’tis manifest they have been till of late Ages? They had very different Fancies concerning the Figure of the Earth. They knew no Land beyond our Continent, and that very imperfectly too; and the Torrid Zone they thought utterly uninhabitable. We think it strange, taking that short Date of the World, which we give it, that Men should not have made more Progress in the Knowledge of these Things; but how impossible is it then, if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting? They had the same Wit and Passions that we have, the same Motives that we have, can