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the Dry-land Surface, and the Subterraneous under it, they all Live and Act with Pleasure, they are gay, and flourish in their proper Element, and allotted Place, they want neither for Food, Cloathing, or Retreat; which would dwindle and die, deftroy, or poifon one another, if all coveted the fame Element, Place, or Food.

Nay, and as the Matter is admirably well ordered, yet confidering the World's encrease, there would not be fufficient Room, Food, and other Neceffaries for all the living Creatures, without another grand Act of the divine Wisdom and Providence, which is the Ballancing the Number of Individuals of each Species of Creatures in that place appointed thereto: Of which in the next Chapter.

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Of the Balance of Animals, or their due Proportion wherewith the World is stocked.

TH

HE whole Surface of our Globe can afford Room, and Support only to fuch a number of all forts of Creatures. And if by their doubling, trebling, or any other Multiplication of their Kind, they fhould encreafe to double or treble that number, they muft ftarve, or devour one another. The keeping

damque Serpentes orta extra aquam, fimul ac primùm niti possunt, aquam perfequuntur. Quin etiam Anatum ova Gallinis fæpe Juppo-. nimusPulli] deinde eas [matres] relinquunt effugiunt, cum primum aquam, quafi naturalem domum, videre potuerunt. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. 1. 2. c. 48.

(1) Be.

keeping therefore the Balance even is manifeftly a Work of the Divine Wifdom and Providence. To which end, the great Author of Life hath determined the Life of all Creatures to fuch a Length, and their Increase to fuch a Number, proportional to their Ufe in the World. The Life of fome Creatures is long, and their Increase but small, and by that means they do not overftock the World. And the fame Benefit is effected, where the Increase is great, by the Brevity of fuch Creature's Lives, by their great Ufe, and the frequent Occafions there are of them for Food to Man, or other Animals. It is a very remarkable Act of the Divine Providence, that useful Creatures are produced in great plenty (1), and others in lefs. The prodigious and frequent Increase of Infects, both in and out of the Waters, may exemplify the one: and 'tis obferv able in the other, that Creatures lefs ufeful, or by their voracity pernicious, have commonly fewer Young, or do feldomer bring forth. Of which ma ny inftances might be given in the voracious Beafts and Birds. But there is one fo peculiar an Animal, as if made for a particular inftance in our prefent cafe, and that is the Guntur of Peru (2); a Fowl of that Magnitude, Strength, and Appetite, as to feize not only on the Sheep, and leffer Cattel, but even

the

(1) Benigna circa hoc Natura, innocua & efculenta animalia fe cunda generavit. Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. 8. c. 55.

(2) Captain J. Strong, gave me this Account, together with a Quill-Feather of the [Cuntur or Condore of Peru on the Coast of Chili, they met with this Bird in about 33° S. Lat. not far from Mocha, an Island in the South-Seas, they hot it fitting on a Cliff, by the Sea-fide; that it was 16 Feet from Wing to Wing extended that the Spanish Inhabitants told them they were 4fraid of thefe Birds, left they should prey upon their Children. And the Feather he gave me (faith the Doctor) is 2 Foot, 4 Inches long; the Quill part 5 Inches long, and 1 Inch about in the

Largeft

the larger Beafts; yea, the very Children too. Now thefe as they are the moft pernicious of Birds, fo are the moft rare, being feldom feen, or only one, or a few in large Countries; enough to keep up the Species, but not to over-charge the World."

Thus the Balance of the Animal World is throughout all Ages kept even, and by a curious Harmony, and juft Proportion between the increase of all Animals, and the length of their Lives, the World is through all ages well, but not over-ftored. One Generation paffeth away, and another Generation cometh (3), fo equally in it's Room, to balance the Stock of the Terraqueous Globe in all Ages, and Places, and among all Creatures, that it is an actual Demonftration of our Saviour's Affertion, Matt. 10. 29. that the most inconfiderable, common Creature,

largeft Part. It weighed 3 dr. 174gr. and is of a dark brown Colour. Dr. Sloane in Phil. Tranf. Nr. 208.

To this Account the Doctor (in a Letter to Mr. Ray, Mar. 31. 1694. with other Papers of Mr. Rays in my Hands) adds the Teftimony of Jof. Acosta, I. 4. c. 37. and Garcilaffo de la Vega, who 1. 8. c. 19. faith, There are other Fowls, called Cuntur, and by the Spaniards corruptly Condor. Many of thefe Fowls having been killed by the Spaniards, had their Proportion taken, and from end to end of their Wings measured 15 or 16 Feet. Nature to temper and allay their Fierceness, denied them the Talons, which are given to the Eagle; their Feet being tipt with Claws like an Hen. However their Beak is ftrong enough to tear off the Hide, and rip up the Bowels of an Ox. Two of them will attempt a Cow or Bull, and devour him. And it hath often happened, that one of them alone hath assaulted Boys of ten or twelve Tears of Age, and eaten them. Their Colour is black and white like a Magpie, It is well there are but few of them, for if they were many, they would very much deftroy the Cattle. They have on the forepart of their Heads a Comb, not pointed like that of a Cock, but rather even in the form of a Razour. When they come to alight from the Air, they make fuch an humming Noife with the fluttering of their Wings, as is enough to astonish, or make a Man deaf.

(3) Ecclef. 1. 4.

(4) The

Creature, even a Sparrow (two of which are Sold for a Farthing) doth not fall on the Ground without our Heavenly Father.

This Providence of God is remarkable in every Species of living Creatures: but that efpecial Management of the Recruits and Decays of Mankind, fo equally all the World over, deferves our especial Obfervation. In the beginning of the World, and fo after Noah's Flood, the Longevity of Men, as it was of abfolute neceffity to the more fpeedy peopling of the new World, fo is a fpecial Inftance of the Divine Providence in this Matter (4). And the fame Providence appears in the following Ages,

when

(4) The Divine Providence doth not only appear in the Longævity of Man immediately after the Creation and Flood; but alfo in their different Longevity at those two times. Immediately after the Creation, when the World was to be peopled by one Man, and one Woman, the Age of the greatest part of those on Record was 900 Years and upwards. But after the Flood, when there were three Perfons by whom the World was to be peopled, none of thofe Patriarchs, except Shem, arrived to the Age of 500; and only the three firft of Shem's Line, viz. Ar phaxad, Salah, and Eber, came near that Age; which was in the first Century after the Flood. But in the fecond Century, we do not find any reached the Age of 240. And in the third Century, (about the later end of which Abraham was born,) none, except Terah, arrived to 200 Years. By which time the World was fo well peopled, (that part of it at leaft where Abraham dwelt) that they had built Cities, and began to be cantoned into diftinct Nations, and Societies, unde their refpective Kings; fo that they were able to wage War, four Kings against five, Gen. 14. Nay, if the Accounts of Anian, Berofus, Manetho, and others, yea Africanus be to be credited, the Wor'd was fo well peopled even before the times we fpeak of, as to afford fufficient Numbers for the great Kingdoms of Affyria, Egypt, Perfia, &c. But learned Men generally, with great reafon, reject thefe as legendary Accounts.

If the Reader hath a mind to fee a Computation of the in crease of Mankind in the three first Centuries after the Flood, he may find two different ones of the most learned Archbishop

Usher:

18

when the World was pretty well peopled, in reducing the common Age of Man then to 120 Years, (Gen. 6. 3.) in proportion to the Occafions of the World at that time. And laftly, when the World was fully peopled after the Flood, (as it was in the Age of Mofes, and fo down to our present time,) the leffening the common Age of Man to 70 or 80 years (5), (the Age mentioned by Mofes, Pfal. 90. 10; this,

fay,) is manifeftly an appointment of

the

Ufher, and Petarius, together with a Refutation of the fo early beginning of the Affyrian Monarchy, as alfo Reasons for placing Abraham near 1000 Years after the Flood in our most learned Bishop Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacr. Book III. Chap 4. §. 9.

(5) That the common Age of Man hath been the fame in all Ages fince the World was peopled, is manifeft from prophane, as well as facred Hiftory. To pafs by others, Plato lived to the Age of 81, and was accounted an old Man. And those which Pliny reckons up, l. 7. c. 48. as rare Examples of long Life, may for the most part be matched by our modern Hifto ries, especially fuch as Pliny himself gave credit unto. Dr. Plet hach given us divers Inftances in his Hiftory of Oxon. C. 2. §. 3. and Chap. 8. §. 54. and Hiftory of Staffordshire, c. 8. §. 91, c. Among others, one is of twelve Tenants of Mr. Biddulphs, that together made 1000 Years of Age. But the most confiderable Examples of aged Perfons among us, is of old Parre of Shropshire, who lived 152 Years 9 Months; and Henry Jenkins of Yorkshire, who lived 169 Years; of both which, with others, =fee Lowth. Abridg. Phil. Tranf. V. 3. p. 306. The great Age of Parre of Shropshire, minds me of an Obfervation of the Reverend Mr. Plaxton, that in his two Parishes of Kinardsey and Donington in Shropshire likewife, every fixth Soul was 60 Years of Age or upwards. Phil. Tranf. Nr. 310.

And if we ftep farther North into Scotland, we fhall find divers recorded for their great Age. Of which I fhall present the Reader with only one modern Example of one Laurence, who married a Wife after he was 100 Years of Age, and would go out to Sea a Fishing in his little Boat, when he was 140 Years old; and is lately dead of no other Diftemper, but meer old Age, faich Sir Rob. Sibbald Prodr. Hift. Nat. Scot. p. 44, and 1. 3. p. 4.

As

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