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De Moor VIII:33: The Unity of the World

Writer's picture: Dr. DildayDr. Dilday

The World is only One, since neither Scripture nor Reason teaches that there are More.  1.  Not the Scripture, which everywhere speaks of the World in the singular, which it otherwise calls the Heavens and the Earth from its principal parts, to which it restricts Creation.  Although John, John 1:3, spoke of all things made διὰ τοῦ Λόγου, by the Word, with absolutely nothing excepted, he thereafter comprehends all these under the name of the κόσμου/cosmos/world in the singular, made by the Λόγον/ Word, verse 10.  2.  Neither does Reason teach more than one World, coalescing from the aggregation of the various parts.  Contrariwise, that only One World is to be acknowledged, flows spontaneously from the Definition of Mundi/World given by our AUTHOR, § 31.  For, if the corporeal World is the Ordered Structure of all Bodies, depending upon one principium and tending toward one end; how great soever be the mass of Bodies scattered by the greatest possible distance from each other, that ought to be referred to this same Universe, unless you wish to deny either the Dependence of a certain Body upon God, or the tendency of the same to His Glory.  However, that the created Universe is contained in the circuit/extent of the Heavens and the Earth, and that there are not more Structures of Heaven and Earth than one, the light of reason does not settle beyond all doubt.  It is indeed rash and without all foundation, to assert more Universes of things.  Yet, that God was able to create more Worlds similar to this one beyond its boundaries, will be proven in § 35.  But, that God did not will this, this Universe in and of itself does not show; neither from the very nature of Creation, nor from the contemplation of the created World, is it granted to deduce unto which side God will have determined His altogether free Will.  And so Revelation alone solidly settles this dispute.



So that the Many Worlds and Between-Worlds of the Epicureans ought to be rejected.  Thus among the tenets of Democritus DIOGENES LÆRTIUS on Democritus, book IX, chapter XLIV, relates:  ἀπείρους τε εἶναι κόσμους, καὶ γενητοὺς, καὶ φθαρτούς, Worlds are infinite, that have been born and are on their way to destruction.  The same is mentioned concerning Democritus, Epicurus, and Metrodorus,[1] by PLUTARCH, in book II de Placitis Philosophorum, chapter I, where, on the other hand, it is testified of Thales:  Θαλῆς καὶ οἱ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ἕνα τὸν κόσμον, Thales and those following him affirm that the cosmos is one.  CICERO, book I de Natura Deorum, chapter VIII, in ridicule writes:  Then Valleius[2]…descended as from the council of the gods, and from the between-worlds of Epicurus:  Hear ye, says he, etc., where what Epicurus understood by Between-worlds, which he himself fixed as the seat of the gods, Victorius,[3] Camerarius,[4] and Davies[5] explain in their notisIn the same place in CICERO, chapter XX:  “For we were taught all the rest by the same (Epicurus), that the World is an effect of nature, that it has no need of workmanship:  and that the thing is so easy, which ye deny to be able to be effected without divine skill, that Nature is going to effect, effects, and has effected Innumerable Worlds.”  THEODORET, de Curatione Græcarum Affectionum, sermon IV, opera, tome 4, page 529:  Τὸν κόσμον, Θαλῆς μὲν, Πυθαγόρας, καὶ Ἀναξαγόρας, καὶ Παρμενίδης, καὶ Μέλισσος, καὶ Ἡράκλειτος, καὶ Πλάτων, καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης, καὶ Ζήνων, ἕνα εἶναι ξυνωμολόγησαν.  Ἀναξίμανδρος δὲ, καὶ Ἀναξιμένης, καὶ Ἀρχέλαος, καὶ Ξενοφάνης, καὶ Διογένης, καὶ Λεύκιππος, καὶ Δημόκριττος, καὶ Ἐπίκουρος, πολλοὺς εἶναι καὶ ἀπείρους ἐδόξασαν, Thales, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Parmenides, Melissus,[6] Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno confess together that the cosmos is one; but Anaximander,[7] Anaximenes,[8] Archelaus,[9] Xenophanes, Diogenes,[10] Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus image that there are many beyond number.  JEROME, Epistola ad Avitum, opera, tome 2, page 151, relates concerning OrigenBut in the second book (of περὶ ἀρχῶν) he asserts innumerable worlds, not the many at one time and similar to our own according to Epicurus, but that the beginning of one world is after the end of the another:  compare also VRIESIUS’ Dissertationem de Infinito, posterior Section, which is de Extensione Infinita, § 21, 22.


Whether they understood the Structures of Heaven and Earth or Universes of things, which is not able to be admitted on account of the things just now mention at the beginning of this section; or Terrestrial Globes, many of which sort are posited either with certainty or with probability by others, both on the Moon, and also on other planets, as we heard in § 29:  but we also at the same time refuted their temerity there, asserting with Scripture only one Habitable Earth.



But what we read, that frequent mention is made of another World or many Worlds in the writings of the Ancients, both Gentile and Ecclesiastical Writers, that is to be understood of other parts of this same World situated beyond the Ocean, with those scarcely yet known, even by mere conjecture, whether they have regard only to the British Isles, or even to the American World:  or they even speak concerning the other World, not only have regard to the most remote and hardly known situation of place beyond the Ocean; but especially regarding the situation of regions, which they remembered, set over against us, so that the inhabitants of the same might be antipodes to us.  Thus CLEMENT of Rome, in his Epistola I ad Corinthios, chapter XX, writes according to the coarseness of those times:  Ὠκεανὸς ἀνθρώποις ἀπέραντος καὶ οἱ μετ᾽ αὐτὸν κόσμοι ταῖς αὐταῖς ταγαῖς τοῦ δεσπότου διευθύνται, The Ocean, impassable to man, and the Cosmoi beyond it, are regulated by the same enactments of the Lord.  Where are worthy to be consulted the learned Notes of PATRICIUS JUNIUS, FELL, and COTELIER; which show that JOSEPHUS called Britain ἑτέραν οἰκουμένην, the other world; that FLORUS, speaking concerning these things, writes, that Cæsar, gazing upon the Ocean, even as if this Roman World were not enough, contemplated another;[11] that VIRGIL says that the Britons were completely divided from the whole world;[12] that SENECA in Medea sings:

 

…Ages will come

In latter years, when Oceanus

Shall relax the chains of things, and the massive

Earth shall be revealed, and Tethys[13]

Shall disclose new Worlds, and Thule[14]

Shall not be the limit of lands.

 

But they also cite PLINY, who in his Natural History, book VI, chapter XXII, has:  That Taprobane[15] is another world of lands, has long been thought, under the appellation of Antichthon.[16]  And afterwards:  But not even Taprobane, although relegated by nature beyond the world, is free from our vices:  compare VOSSIUS’ Theses theologicas, Disputation I, de Creatione, part II, thesis XI, opera, tome 6, page 352.


On the Questions, Whether the new World was known to the ancients? and How men and the families of beasts arrived at the new world? see what VOETIUS says by way of response, Disputationibus theologicis, part I, pages 646-649.  Likewise, on the Question, Whether men in the new World, or in whatever land separated by vast stretches of Ocean from the ancient world, and so hitherto not known or frequented, have beginning of their ancestry other than Noah and Adam? see the same answering in the Negative, page 794, problem IX.


[1] Metrodorus of Lampsacus (c. 330-c. 277 BC) was a Greek Epicurean philosopher.  His work survives only in fragments.

[2] Marcus Velleius Paterculus (c. 19 BC-c. 31 AD) was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian.  He composed a universal history from the Trojan War to his own time, but the beginning is missing.

[3] Petrus Victorius (1499-1585) was an Italian humanist and philologist.  He produced editions of Cicero, Varro, Cato, Aristotle, and others.

[4] Joachim Camerarius the Elder (1500-1574) was a German classical scholar, and one of Europe’s leading experts on the ancient world.  He translated a number of Greek texts into Latin.

[5] John Davies (1679-1732) was an English churchman and classical scholar.  He produced editions of multiple Greek and Latin texts, including Cicero’s de Natural Deorum.

[6] Melissus of Samus (fifth century BC) was pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the Eleatic school.

[7] Anaximander (c. 610-546) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the Milesian school.  He succeeded Thales as the school’s master, and taught Anaximenes, and probably also Pythagoras.  Anaximander postulated the apeiron, the infinite or boundless, as the original principle of all all things.

[8] Anaximenes (c. 586-c. 526 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the Milesian school.  He postulated air as the basic element of the universe.

[9] Archelaus (fifth century BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the Ionian school.  He may have been one of Socrates’ teachers.  Archelaus held the infinite and air to be the principle of all things, and asserted that the principle of motion is the separation of heat and cold.

[10] Diogenes (c. 412-323 BC) was a Greek philosopher, one of the founders of Cynicism.  He lived very simply; indeed, almost like an animal, without any pretense.  Diogenes engaged in almost endless criticism of common beliefs and public conventions.

[11] Florus’ Epitome, book I, section 45.  Florus (early second century) was a Roman historian; he wrote an Epitome of the Histories of Titus Livy.

[12] Eclogue I.

[13] In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titan, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, the sister and wife of Oceanus.

[14] In ancient Greek cartography, Thule was the northern limit, an island north of the British Isles.

[15] That is, the island of Sri Lanka.

[16] That is, a counter-Earth.

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Dr. Steven Dilday holds a BA in Religion and Philosophy from Campbell University, a Master of Arts in Religion from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), and both a Master of Divinity and a  Ph.D. in Puritan History and Literature from Whitefield Theological Seminary.  He is also the translator of Matthew Poole's Synopsis of Biblical Interpreters and Bernardinus De Moor’s Didactico-Elenctic Theology.

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