The sacred theory of the Earth, Volume 2 (of 2)

In Short

This seventeenth-century cosmological work presents a sweeping sacred history of the physical Earth, tracing its ultimate destruction by fire and its eventual rebirth as a paradise. The author combines Biblical prophecies, ancient philosophy, and natural science to map out the cosmic life cycle of the planet. He contends that the present Earth is merely a broken, ruined shell from the original Flood, destined to undergo a total conflagration. After this purifying fire, the globe will be remolded into a smooth, pristine sphere—a new Jerusalem where the righteous will live in a thousand-year reign of peace and physical perfection. Long remembered for its visionary imagination and vigorous defense of natural mechanisms alongside divine Providence, it stands as a bold attempt to unite early modern science with Christian eschatology.

The Story

The text constructs a grand, systemic vision of the Earth's final transformation, bridging the gap between scripture and physical mechanics. The narrative of the world begins with its original, pre-diluvian form—a smooth, unblemished sphere resting over a vast subterranean abyss. The author argues that the ancient world was destroyed in the Great Flood not by a static pool of miraculously created water, but by the physical breaking of the outer crust, which collapsed into the subterranean deep and violently sloshed over the land. The fragmented topography we inhabit today, full of jagged mountains, cavernous seas, and unpredictable seasons, is merely a heap of ruins left over from that ancient disaster.

Turning toward the future, the treatise lays out the mechanics of the impending Conflagration—the fiery destruction of the planet. Rather than relying on sudden, arbitrary acts of omnipotence, the argument insists that God works through natural secondary causes. The earth is already packed with combustible materials: underground chambers filled with sulfurous fumes, volatile minerals, and fiery volcanic vents. When the appointed hour arrives, a loosening of the Earth’s structure and a sweat of internal heat will ignite these natural fuel stores. The oceans will boil off into sulfurous, purulent fluids, turning into a dead, asphaltic sea, while cities and mountains melt down like wax in a fierce liquefaction. Angels, acting as the primary agents of divine providence, will direct these physical forces with complete mastery, guiding the fiery devastation without needing to suspend the laws of nature.

From the ashes of this global furnace, a new world will emerge. The melted elements will settle into a superior, more beautiful form. The jagged mountains and unpredictable ocean basins will vanish, restored to a paradise reminiscent of the world before the Flood. In this rebuilt domain, the Earth will enjoy a perpetual equinox without harsh winters or blistering summers, free from the physical decay that plagues our current existence.

This renewed globe becomes the physical location for the Millennium—the thousand-year reign of Christ and his resurrected saints. The author draws on the Old Testament prophets, the Book of Revelation, and ancient Gentile traditions to argue that the Millennium cannot occur on our broken, current Earth. True human happiness requires indolence and plenty—freedom from pain, disease, and bodily indigency—which can only exist in a restored, paradisaical environment. During this epoch, human souls, freed from the disease-ridden "prisons" of their current bodies, will occupy immortal, celestial frames. The saints will spend this glorious age immersed in devotion, contemplation, and the study of divine wisdom.

The arc closes by addressing contemporary critics who challenge this physical model. The author defends his reliance on natural mechanisms, rejecting the idea that explaining the Deluge or Conflagration through physical causes detracts from God's power. By designing a universe that carries the seeds of its own judgment and renewal within its physical framework, God demonstrates supreme wisdom. The natural world and the moral world move in complete harmony toward the ultimate restitution of all things.

How It Unfolds

The broken world The text establishes that our present Earth is not in its original state, but exists as a fractured, mountainous ruin left behind after the catastrophic collapse of its outer crust into the subterranean abyss during Noah's Flood.

The natural fuels of destruction Examining the mechanics of the coming Conflagration, the author explains how subterranean sulfur, volcanic vents, and volatile atmospheric vapors act as a giant, pre-built funeral pile awaiting ignition.

The ministry of angels The narrative clarifies that divine intervention operates through angelic beings who masterfully manipulate secondary natural causes, directing the spread of the flames rather than calling forth raw, miraculous creation from nothing.

The great liquefaction The surface of the Earth succumbs to a melting fire that sweeps away cities and oceans alike, turning the seas into dead, brimstone-filled lakes and melting the rocky landscape into a uniform, moldable liquid.

The birth of the new Earth Once the purifying fires consume the old structures, the melted matter cools into a smooth, balanced sphere, restoring the globe to a pristine, paradisaical state free from oceans, jagged mountains, or extreme seasons.

The millennial kingdom The resurrected saints inhabit this new physical world to begin the thousand-year reign with Christ, living in complete freedom from physical suffering, disease, and material want under a perpetual equinox.

Refuting the critics The author concludes by defending his physical model against theological and scientific opponents, proving that explaining biblical events through natural philosophy honors divine wisdom far more than invoking constant, unexplainable miracles.

The People

Thomas Burnet (The Author) As the central mind driving the text, Burnet acts as a natural philosopher and theological visionary who seeks to reconcile divine revelation with physical mechanics. He wants to demonstrate that the Bible's prophecies regarding the Earth's destruction and renewal align with the laws of natural philosophy. He is driven by a desire to defend the rationality of Christian eschatology against both rigid literalists and skeptical detractors, ultimately constructing a systematic natural history of the planet's past and future.

The Angels Functioning as the celestial ministers of Providence, the angels are key executioners of divine judgment in the physical world. Rather than breaking natural laws, they possess an inherent, perfect knowledge of matter and motion, allowing them to adjust natural causes to carry out God's will. They direct the fiery destruction of the Earth and the subsequent ordering of the paradise, acting as a bridge between pure divine omnipotence and physical nature.

The Opponents (The Exceptor and Examiner) Represented by critics like Erasmus Warren and John Keill, these contemporary scholars stand in opposition to Burnet’s model. They seek to defend a literal interpretation of Genesis and conventional physics, arguing that Burnet's theory leaves out direct divine intervention or relies on impossible natural mechanics. Their pushback forces the author to refine his arguments, defending his views on everything from the origin of mountains to the presence of the rainbow before the Flood.

The Sons of the Resurrection (The Saints) The righteous human beings who are raised to inhabit the renewed Earth during the Millennium. Having spent their mortal lives confined in diseased, fragile bodies—described as physical prisons—they enter the new world in immortal, celestial forms. They seek spiritual perfection, devotion, and intellectual contemplation, thriving in an environment that permanently eliminates bodily pain, hunger, and worldly anxiety.

In Its Own Voice

"This Theory supposes the present Earth to be little better than an Heap of Ruins; where yet there is Room enough for Sea and Land, for Islands and Continents, for several Countries and Dominions: But when these are all melted down, and refin’d in the general Fire, they will be cast into a better Mould, and the Form and Qualities of the Earth will become Paradisaical."

The author opens his address to the Queen by summarizing the core transformation that the physical world must undergo.

"And when this World is demolish’d by the last Fire, He that undertakes to rear it up again, will supply the Defects, if there were any, of the former Fabrick."

In framing the cosmic rebuild, the author explains how divine craftsmanship improves upon the old, flawed terrestrial architecture.

"I call this Body a Prison, both because it is a Confinement and Restraint upon our best Faculties and Capacities, and is also the Seat of Diseases and Loathsomness..."

Reflecting on the state of human existence before the Millennium, the author describes the limitations of our mortal physical form.

What It's Really About

At its core, the text is an ambitious attempt to synthesize early modern natural philosophy with Christian eschatology. It rejects the idea that the physical universe is a static backdrop for human drama, arguing instead that the Earth itself undergoes a dynamic, physical life cycle governed by divine laws. The central argument is that divine judgment does not require the suspension of nature; rather, God designed the physics of the universe so that its natural mechanisms—underground fires, volatile minerals, structural fractures—inevitably execute moral judgments like the Flood and the Conflagration.

The work also wrestles with the problem of human suffering and the ideal state of creation. By insisting that true spiritual and mental happiness requires physical "indolency" (freedom from pain) and plenty, the text argues that heaven is not merely an abstract spiritual realm, but a physical paradise rebuilt right here on Earth. Underneath its elaborate cosmological mechanics, the book asks whether human reason can uncover the hidden physical history of the planet and how the material world relates to the eternal destination of the human soul.

Why Read It Today

This text offers a fascinating window into the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century mind, capturing a unique historical moment when modern science and classical theology were deeply intertwined. Readers interested in the history of science, early modern philosophy, or intellectual history will find it a compelling example of how early natural philosophers attempted to explain miraculous biblical events using physics, chemistry, and mechanical reasoning. It reveals a time when talking about underground sulfur deposits and angelic interventions belonged to the very same intellectual framework.

The primary difficulty for modern readers lies in its dense, period-specific style. The prose is stately and expansive, filled with long sentences, Latin citations, untranslated classical phrases, and tedious polemical side-quests against contemporary critics like John Keill and Erasmus Warren. The author frequently detours into minute debates over the geometry of the ancient abyss or the precise mechanics of atmospheric condensation.

Yet, what stays with the reader is the sheer grandeur of the author's imagination. The vision of a melting world, where mountains dissolve into a fiery sea and the planet cools into a smooth, everlasting paradise, carries a powerful poetic majesty. It reads less like a dry theological treatise and more like a cosmic epic, leaving an indelible impression of an era when the natural world was viewed with intense spiritual awe and scientific curiosity.