From The Sacred Theory of the EarthTHE SUBSTANCE of the theory is this; that there was a primitive earth of another form from the present, and inhabited by mankind till the deluge: that it had those properties and conditions that we have ascribed to it, namely a perpetual equinox or spring, by reason of its right situation to the sun; was of an oval figure, and the exterior face of it smooth and uniform, without mountains or a sea. That in this earth stood Paradise; the doctrine whereof cannot be understood but upon supposition of this primitive earth, and its properties. Then that the disruption and fall of this earth unto the abyss which lay under it, was that which made the universal deluge, and the destruction of the old world; and that neither Noahs flood, nor the present form of the earth can be explained in any other method that is rational, nor by any other causes that are intelligible, at least, that have been hitherto proposed to the world. 1