and Q. Curtius the Babylonian Soil does still retain a strange and happy Fertility For they assure us that it yields Corn at the rate of two hundred fold and that it bears Palm Trees of its own accord which afford Bread Wine Honey c. And as Pliny informs us Nat. Hist l. 18. c. 17. their Corn grows so rank that men are fain to cut it twice and after that turn Sheep into it to eat it down And then Crops are so plentiful that one year they sow themselves against the next and sponte restibilis fit seges Corn grows of its own accord and yields an harvest without Tillage And if this Soil be so fertile now what was it before the Curse when it was newly created and in its prime Perfection So that upon the whole Matter let Rabbies and Fathers and Poets and Theorists say what they please yet so long as Moses wrote the second Chapter of Genesis and his hand was guided by the most HOLY and unerring SPIRIT we cannot but think that men in reason ought to conclude and that in duty they ought to believe that Paradise was seated in Mesopotamia or thereabouts And we hope it is as intelligible that it should be there seated as that it was situate in the Southern Hemisphere For who ever yet understood or who can understand That Eden and Havilah and Cush and Assyria were Countries and that Pison and Gihon and Hiddekel and Euphrates were Rivers in that Southern Hemisphere In case they were so how came they from thence hither I remember Sir Richard Baker tells it as a great Wonder amongst the Casualties that hapned in our Queen Elizabeth's Reign that a certain hill in Herefordshire beginning to remove out of its place on Saturday Evening continued walking till Munday noon But if such large Countries as these could take so long a Journey the ambulatory Mount may stand by for a diminutive Prodigy Tho we must observe withal that the Fathers never seated Paradise in the other Hemisphere neither They only seem to incline to that by the Theorists due interpretation of them as was noted above And as to the Seat of Paradise as he says they expressed themselves in various ways That is their Notions of it were incertain and in plain terms they knew not where to fix it But so far were they from believing it to be in the Southern Hemisphere that they did not believe that Hemisphere was ever inhabited for they did not believe that there were Antipodes And when some of them would have Paradise to be Mystical only and others would have it to be the whole Earth and others place it under the Aequinoctial and others under the Globe or Circle of the Moon and others in the exterior part of a flat or plain Earth round the inward part of which they supposed the Ocean to stand like a Ring Which of them set it in the Southern Hemisphere Tho if they had we need not have been much surpriz'd at it neither For being but men they might have done as men have erred that is in their Opinion And truly ever since Adam through desire of Knowledge first planted error in Paradise that poysonous Weed has been apt to Spring up and spread unhappily in other places and the best Gardens of Antiquity have been stained with it Witness the Millenium the Rebaptizing of Haeretics the Limbus Patrum the Communicating of Infants and the like And if we 'll take in Errors of a lower Strain we shall find the false Notions entertained by the Ancients of the Form of the Earth of the Figure and Situation of the Sea of the non-existence of Antipodes c. ready to confirm and corroborate the Testimony And what does the famous Aristotelian Hypothesis seem to be now in this present Age Aristotle believed the Milky Way to be a Meteor He also allowed but Eight Heavenly Sphaeres which Timocaris above three hundred years before the Incarnation improved to Nine and Alphonsus in the thirteeneth Century after it into Ten and afterward they were commonly reckoned Eleven And not only Egyptians Graecians and Arabians but even Hebrew and Christian Doctors took the Stars to be living Bodies actuated with Souls as Espencaeus informs us in his Treatise de Cal. animat but a Mass of Errors Where such a Systeme was contrived for the Heavens and such a situation assigned to the Earth as neither Reason can approve nor Nature allow Yet so prosperous and prevailing was this Hypothesis that it was generally received and successfully propagated for many Ages And when the Heavens were so misconceived and the Earth so misplaced and the Errors touching both were spread so far and continued so long why might not the same happen as to Paradise Why might not the Ancients and the choicest of the Ancients mistake concerning it particularly concerning the place of it Were an Account to be given of the Original or Occasion of this their Mistake it might seem methinks to have risen thus or proceeded from hence They thought and spake too Great things of Paradise and supposed such Properties and Excellencies in it as it never had nor was capable of And having rais'd their Phantsies to so high a Pitch they could not tell how to let them fall again and stoop so low as Mesopotamia And so they conceited that Paradise was in some remote unknown inaccessible Region or as it were in another World because they could find out no place in this which answered the gay Notions that they had and their fine but false Idea's of it Just as the Jews overlookt the Person of the true Messiah because it came not up to that vain and extravagant Character of Him unhappily imprinted on their Minds So these pious learned and incomparable men took no notice of the real Place of Paradise as being prepossest with misapprehensions of it The lofty Opinions which they had concerning it lifted up their Thoughts far above it and carry'd them away quite beyond it They imagin'd that it was they knew not well what and so they placed it they knew not well where believing they should wrong it if they fixt it any where in this ordinary World The Excepter having done with the Place of Paradise he objected next against the Longaevity of men before the flood as a Property of it But this p. 55. says the Answerer he handles so loosely that in the conclusion of his Discourse one cannot tell whether he affirms it or denies it The Excepter begins his discourse of this matter Disc p. 273. with these very words As for the Longaevity of the Antediluvians that could be no Property or Adjunct of Paradise And did he not deny then and positively deny the Longaevity of the Antediluvians as a Property of Paradise which is his notion of it And because the Answerer does affirm the thing by dividing the Doctrine of the local Paradise into two parts Answer p. 55. the Place and the Properties
suggested that such a posture as lying cross the Stream would be more likely to effect the Earth's turning upon its own axis as it does And the Stream would take more hold of an oblong Body than of a round Answ p. 40. And because it would take more hold of it for that very reason it would the sooner turn it out of its Position For what makes the force of a stream turn a long Body that lies cross it sooner than another as long which already lies length-ways in it but only its taking more hold of it And then as to the Earth's turning upon its own axis it would rather have promoted than prevented the change of its situation considering its wallowings in its Annual Circuit For where a Body has two Motions upon the same Center if one of them chances to be irregular the other commonly disorders it farther rather than helps to correct its Exorbitance Somewhat like a Bowl which being not set out of hand right the oftner it turns round in its progressive motion the farther it runs on in a wrong Course The second Argument against the Oval Figure of the first Earth Disc p. 196. is the Sphaericalness of the present Earth And that the present Earth is Sphaerical is not only the Opinion of Modern but also of Ancient Philosophers said the Excepter and he named some But the Theorist Answ p. 40. says the Answerer alledg'd many more Authorities in favour of the Oval Figure of the Earth For besides Empedocles in particular he affirms that the Philosophy of Orpheus the Phoenician Aegyptian and Persian Philosophers did all compare the Earth to an Egg with respect to its Oval External Form Here we must reply Another untruth 1st That this is another very false Assertion For those Philosophers made the comparison betwixt the World and the Egg not betwixt the Earth and the Egg tho our Author would put that sense upon them Only two of the Authorities cited by him Lat. Theor. Edit 2. p. 267. resemble the Earth to the Yolk of the Egg very unluckily for that we know is of a round Figure 2ly Where the Ancients compare the World to an Egg they do it usually with respect to its Production as well as to its Form A Notion which the Answerer or any Theist would be loth to admit of that Heaven and Earth and all things therein should spring out of a material Egg. A pregnant Instance of this occurs in Athenagoras which upon occasion we noted formerly who tells us that Orpheus the Author we may suppose Legat. pro Christ pa. mihi 72. Disc p. 105. Sympos l. 2. Qu. 3. of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg for Plutarch calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orphic Doctrine taught that a vast Egg brought forth by Hercules being broke by him fell into two parts Of the upper part Heaven was made and of the lower the Earth So that Heaven was contained in and sprung out of this Egg as well as the Earth And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Heaven being mingled with Earth brought forth Men Women and GODS And what is this less tho the Gentil Divinity was tinctur'd with it than a piece of rankest Atheistic Physiology For it makes Mankind and Gods to rise out of meer Matter without allowing such a Principle as Soul or Spirit to any one of them And this Egg out of which Aristophanes will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Avib the Race of Gods to be hatched as well as mortal and inanimate Creatures was layed he says by Chaos and Night And so gives us a plain account of the old Atheistic Theology which made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Production of the Gods and the Production of the World the same thing Yet the Theorist was pleased to show Vid. Lat. Theor. li. 2. c. 7. 10. Edit 2. that between this Doctrine and his there is an Harmony or Affinity Which if it will conciliate Reputation to his Hypothesis let it But so far as it agrees with the Aristophanic or Atheistic Cosmogony so far it will be the less reconcilable to the Mosaic Cosmology or inspired Doctrine of the Creation Disc p. 197. The Sphaericalness of this present Earth was argued First from the Conical Figure of its shadow cast upon the Moon Answ p. 41. But that says the Answerer cannot make a Difference sensible to us at this distance whether the Body that cast the shadow was exactly Sphaerical or Oval This is gratis dictum and spoken against a common and approved Argument and so of little weight Secondly It was inferred from the place of the Waters Which are deepest so far as we know near the Poles whereas were the Earth Oval the middle Regions thereof being lowest the Waters would have run thither and settled under the Aequator But this he tells us has been answer'd before The same Cause that drive the Waters thither would have kept them there And that Answer has been reply'd to already and the Replicant has shewed that there was no sufficient Cause to drive the Waters thither and so none to keep them there Thirdly It was urged That if this Earth was Oval Navigation towards the Poles would be extremely difficult if not impossible because of Sailing up an Ascent But says the Answerer If there be a continual draught of Waters from the Aequator towards the Poles this will Ballance the Difficulty But if there be no such draught the difficulty holds and that there is such a Draught remains to be proved That the Figure of this Earth is truly Sphaerical is fairly discovered and determin'd by this Observation That the Gibbosity of the Sea rises as fast behind a Ship Sailing in direct Latitude towards the Poles as behind one whose course lies in direct Longitude towards East or West CHAP. X. THE Excepter proved that Mountains were before the Flood from the words of Moses Psal 90. Read Disc c. 10. § 1. Before the Mountains were brought forth Thou art GOD from everlasting And from Pro. 8.22 25. where we read that the LORD possessed WISDOM before the Mountains were settled And the Answerer grants that the design and intention of the H. GHOST is plain in both these places in the one Answ p. 43◠to set out the Eternity of GOD and in the other of the Logos in particular Now where it was the design and intention of the H. GHOST to set out the Existence of GOD and the Divine Logos which were from everlasting by temporal things would he do it by any but such as were soonest brought into being Or would Moses himself without the H. GHOST have done it by any other things than such Surely it would have been a very faint and improper Illustration of GOD's Eternity unbecoming Moses much more the H. SPIRIT to say that he existed before the World was seventeen hundred years old Yet when
Material food because the first spoken of was of that nature And in the same Chapter the Jews telling of Manna or bread from Heaven which their Fathers eat JESVS said unto them I am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall never hunger But this does not make our SAVIOUR real Manna nor was it possible he should be Material bread Yea being but in the Jewish Temple he took occasion from thence to call his body by that name Chap. 2. Destroy this Temple and I will build it again in three days But was his sacred Body ever the more a stony building And when this was the way of our Great REDEEMER what wonder that his chief Apostle should imitate him And that speaking of the old Heavens and Earth kept in store and reserved unto fire should in raising his Discourse to a future spiritual blessed state speak of it in the terms and under the notions of new Heavens and a new Earth But fourthly that the Apostles words should point at a triform state of Heavens and Earth is very improbable from that change which he makes in the Terms that he uses For in the 5th verse he uses the words Heavens and Earth and in the 7th verse again Heavens and Earth but in the verse betwixt both he says the World that then was Now if he meant the same thing in all three verses why did he not use the same Words and say the Heavens and the Earth that were then This fairly intimates that he intended not the natural but animate World and principally Mankind whom he called the old World in this Chapter and in the preceding Chapter the world of the ungodly Fifthly that this threefold state of Heavens and Earth should be denoted in these words is not to be thought because they certify us that the World that then was perished Now could that be true of the natural World Yet it must be true of some World because GOD says it and therefore it must relate to a World which could and did actually perish which must be the Animal World Indeed by this Perishing the Review understands a change only in the constitution and form of the Heavens and Earth But is or can that be a perishing Suppose ones temper or constitution be changed from Phlegmatic to Choleric is the man therefore perished Or suppose the Shell of an Egg should crack and sink inward a little is the Egg therefore perished No more could the Material Heavens and Earth perish by a meer change of their Constitution and form And had but such a change as that befallen them the Apostle would certainly have express'd it accordingly and not have said the World that then was perished But since he has thus express'd it the animate World must be here understood that so the Word spoken may come up to the thing and express it in a just and true sense But because he says that the Apostle speaks here of the Natural World particularly in the 6th verse and offers Reasons to prove that it perished Review p. 14. We shall lay down the Substance of these Reasons and briefly answer them First the ground these Scoffers went upon was taken from the permanency of the natural World in the same state from the beginning And therefore if the Apostle would take away their Argument he must show that the natural World hath been changed or hath perished Answ And does he not show them a sufficient change in nature at the Deluge when as he minds them the Earth stood so deep and the Heavens so high in Water that thereby the animate world perished Only this change was a change in the condition not of the Constitution of the natural World Secondly these Scoffers could not be ignorant that there was a Deluge which destroyed Mankind and therefore it was the Constitution of those old Heavens and Earth and the change and destruction of them at the Deluge that they were ignorant of Answ If they were not ignorant of the destructive Deluge they might have forgotten it See Disc p. 137. and therefore the Apostle minds them of it Or else they were ignorant or forgetful of the divine Cause of the Flood Ib. p. 134 c which he therefore expressly tells them was the Word of GOD. But as to the pretended change or destruction of the Heavens and Earth I doubt not but S. Peter was as ignorant of them as any of the Persons he reprehends Thirdly the Apostle's design is to prove the Conflagration which will be a destruction of the natural World and therefore he must use an Argument taken from a precedent destruction of that World Answ The Design of the Apostle is not to oppose reason to reason strictly in a just parity of Instances but fairly to infer one judicial and calamitous Providence or Dispensation from another And GOD having drowned the old Heavens in some measure as well as the Earth by the word of his power bringing in the flood upon the ungodly he would from hence convince them that by the same word the present Heavens and Earth are reserved unto fire which shall then be the instrument of perdition to the impious and the whole living World as water was before And so from one general destruction past he strenuously argues the certain futurity of another to come Fourthly unless we understand here the natural World we make the Apostle both redundant in his Discourse and also very obscure in an easy Argument Answ His Discourse for this will not be redundant but very close to his purpose For that is not only to mind these Scoffers that men and other Animals were destroyed in a Deluge caused by GOD's Power but to represent the greatness of that Deluge which swell'd so mightily upon the Earth that in some measure it invaded the Heavens And therefore to what he said of the flood 's destroying Mankind in the foregoing Chapter v. 5th he adding here a description of the vastness of that Flood in the drowned posture which the Heavens and Earth then stood in what he says is far from being superfluous or redundant Nor is his Argument thus made obscure On the contrary rather it receives light from hence For he here bringing in the Heavens and Earth into his account of the Deluge does thereby make the Greatness of it he was representing the more conspicuous Fifthly the opposition carries it upon the Natural World Answ The Heavens and Earth that were of old and the Heavens and Earth that are now we grant are opposed But then 't is as to their Fate not in their Natures And tho the Heavens and Earth that are now shall perish more throughly than they did of old Fire being more consuming than Water yet then for a time they perished too That is in S. Austin's sense with whose Authority the Review makes so loud a noise to little purpose For so far as I can find neither he nor any of the Fathers who affirm
Discourse p. 49. how the Theory acknowledged that to make the primitive Earth out of Particles descending from above p. 51. must be a good whiles work and that it was to become dry by degrees after it had done growing and that the Body or new Concretion of it was increased DAILY being fed and supplied both from above and below And can an Habitable Earth which is a good while in making and the body of which must be DAILY increased be made in six Minutes even by Extraordinary Providence it self What made the Answerer start out of the way of ordinary Providence which he went in as to the Earth's Formation into this extraordinary one to stumble into such a Contradiction of himself But so it is A Contradiction to himself when men are pinched and put to pain they must do and say something tho it be little to the purpose yea much against it And this grave distinction being bestowed upon the first Exception without more ado it is fairly dropt And as for the Arguments contained in the residue of the Chapter against undue protraction of the time of the Earth's Formation which protraction is made necessary by the Theorist's Hypothesis Answ p. 4. even against the Doctrine or History of Moses They are left to the Author and his Readers the Theory being not concerned in them And so they are answered by his Last Expedient But before I go farther I must tell our Answerer that in allowing this extraordinary Providence he condemns his Hypothesis of extraordinary Impertinence For what Need or what Vse can there be of his New Hypothesis as to solving the Phaenomenaes of the Flood when by this Concession the old one will be inabled to the Solution of them all for which his was invented Thus for example was that World to be drowned and the Flood to surmount the highest Hills fifteen Cubits Why extraordinary Providence in six Minutes could create water enough to do it Was that work done by such a prodigious Flood and the Mass of Water to be dried up again Extraordinary Providence could as soon annihilate it Was the frame of the World to be inlarged upon the coming of so vast a quantity of new matter into it And to be contracted again upon its going out Extraordinary Providence could sufficiently provide both against the one and the other inconvenience Were men to live a thousand years before the Flood The same Providence could effect this without a continual Equinox or an Earth universally paradisiacal And thus the Theory instead of making any Figure here is by its own Author made to dwindle into a Cypher and meer superfluity We hope that henceforward the old method of explaining Noah's Flood shall be allowed to be rational and intelligible for that proceeded upon extraordinary Providence and our Answerer is fain to make use of that kind of Providence in reference to his own Hypothesis at last Yea the truth is he is now glad we see to take up with it at first and even to form his Earth by it And yet he tells us in the sixth Chapter of the first Book of his Latin Theory Edit 2. that this Earth was formed solo ductu by the sole conduct of the most known Laws of Gravity and Levity And so this Natural History the Theory is in good part a Natural History of what was done by Divine Power or an History of an effect wrought by Extraordinary Providence which was done by the sole conduct of Natures Laws and Principles And therefore how true this piece of Natural History is and also how great let the World judge but if it be not extremely remarkable I am much mistaken Another Contradiction And so I am if here be not contradiction again But tho our Answerer as he pretends in this Chapter be such a friend to extraordinary Providence yet it is evident that the Theorist otherwhiles was not For tho now his Earth as he grants might be made in six minutes yet heretofore it was to be increased daily and to be dried by degrees before it could be habitable that is it was to be formed in way of ordinary Providence And in the second Chap. of the first Book of his English Theory he tells the World plainly that if we come to reflect seriously upon it we shall find it extreamly difficult if not impossible p. 9. to give an account of the Waters that compos'd the Deluge whence they came and whether they went And adds Ib. to find Water sufficient for this Effect as it is generally explained and understood I think is impossible But had he been hearty for Extraordinary Providence here would have appeared no difficulty I am sure much less extreme difficulty and least of all impossibility For such a Providence could have created Waters to compose the Deluge and then have annihilated them again and as the quantity of them would thus have been sufficient so the account whence they came and whither they went would have been as easie That this was one way in which some went as to explaining the Deluge according to the general or common Notion of it the Theorist observed in his third Chapter They say in short says he Eng. The. p. 18. That God ALMIGHTY created waters on purpose to make the Deluge and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease But how did he approve of this way That will appear from what follows Where he presently complains Ib. that this is to show us the naked arm of Omnipotency A sight which he could not well brook in this case And why Why Ib. because this is to cut the knot when we cannot loose it Yet see the change he is now fain to show the naked Arm of Omnipotency himself and to make use of the Knife of Extraordinary Providence tho with it he cuts his own Fingers as well as several knots of his Hypothesis as we shall see afterward And thus we have gained one extraordinary Point An Earth that before was to increase DAILY in the Body or Concretion of it and so might be six Days or six Weeks or as many Months or Years in forming might now by Extraordinary Providence be made in six Minutes That is our Author is brought to Cross his Hypothesis in this Matter For now he supposes that his Earth might be formed in six Minutes by extraordinary Providence whereas the Theory as is plain from the cited Expressions carries on its formation in way of ordinary Providence according to which the Formation of it would require much more time than six days as he confesses Answ p. 2. CHAP. III. THat the Moon was in the Heavens and in our neighbourhood P. 5. when the Earth was form'd he proves from the six days Creation says the Answerer of the Excepter here But his Argument he tells him will be of no force unless he can prove that the Fourth days Creation was before the Third No Who
the Creation is to be limited to the Formation of our lower World and those parts of Nature which could be made out of the Earthly Chaos And that when he speaks of the Coelestial parts of the Universe the Luminaries Ib. cap. 7. p. 232. Edit 1. he meant no more than that they were then made Conspicuous and this if need be he declares he could demonstrate But the Objections made against these Confident Notions of his are answered only by being in part left out of the second Edition of the Latin Theory A farther Evidence that what he wrote was true and remarkable Natural History And also plain Demonstration in the case too But then 't is of the weakness to speak freely not of the truth or validity of his Assertions And withal here 's some proof that notwithstanding the great impertinence of this Chapter it reached the Theory in some things which ought to be taken notice of and spoken against for they were so very culpable it seems that they deserv'd to be cashier'd or left out CHAP. V. HEre the Answerer observes the Form of the Earth to be Excepted against upon the account that it would have wanted Waters or Rivers to Water it in that there would either be no Rivers at all or none at least in due time But before he opposes these Reasons he gives a short account of the state of the Waters in his primeval Earth and then declares p. 13. This I believe is an Idea more easily conceiv'd than any we could form concerning the Waters and Rivers of this present Earth if we had not experience of them On the other side I believe the contrary so easie to be conceived that I shall not spend time in making it out I only say thus much In case his Idea were most easie to be conceived yet what is most fair and easie in the Idea or speculation of a thing is not always most true but may be most false in Nature Look to the constitution or posture of the Heavens There the Aequator and Ecliptick intersect each other in an angle of twenty three Degrees and better But the Philosophers Idea represents a Parallelism in the axes of these two Circles and a Coincidence in their Plains most easie and natural Yet this angular intersection holds tho it is thought some Mechanic or Physical Causes would bring them nearer to the site we speak of And this very position tho it seems to be forc'd and violent and that as well to the Course of Nature as the Philosophers Conception or Idea is yet the most convenient that possibly can be for the Earths Inhabitants and by its lasting continuance becomes a choice argument to confute the Atheist and evince a Providence The Reason why there would be no Rivers at all Answ p. 14. he notes was because the Regions towards the Poles where the Rains are supposed to fall and the Rivers to rise would have been all frozen and congeal'd And he goes on Why we should think those Regions would be frozen and the Rains that fell in them he the Excepter gives two reasons the Distance and the Obliquity of the Sun As also the Experience we have now of the Coldness and Frozenness of those parts of the Earth And what says he to these our Reasons As to the Distance of the Sun he would make the Excepter answer that Himself bringing him in thus He confesses Ib. That is not the thing that does only or chiefly make a climate cold Ay and that Confession he keeps to still supposing the Suns Distance be Perpendicular which was the Distance he spake of Disc p. 118. But if the Sun moved always in the Aequinoctial his Distance from the Circumpolar or Raining Regions must be an Oblique Distance And if that Distance were but as great betwixt the Sun and the imaginary Raining Regions as it is betwixt the Sun and us in the Depth of Winter it may from hence be concluded that the Cold in those Regions must be as great as in Winter time it is in ours by reason of his distance As to the Obliquity of the Sun the Answerer says it was neither so great nor so considerable in the first Earth as in the Present Answ p. 14. But tho the Obliquity of the Sun be greater now because the body of this Earth lies in an oblique Position to him yet his Distance from us in Winter is far less now in this present Earth than his Distance from the Raining Regions was in the primitive Earth Because that being an oval or Oblong Earth its circumpolar Regions must be far more remote from the Equator See Discourse c. 5. § 4. than if it had been Round or Globular And so the Raining Regions then must be much colder than our Climate is now in the dead of Winter For as it is not the Distance of the Sun alone that makes a Climate vehemently cold so it is not his Obliquity alone that does it neither but a great oblique Distance And so great and considerable must the Sun's Distance of this Nature be from the Raining Regions in the Primitive Earth as to leave them in a very freezing Condition Especially if the Experiences alledged by the Excepter be well considered Ibid. to which there is nothing distinctly answered Instead of applying himself to take off them the Answerer is pleas'd to tell us thus Answ p. 14. That if the Excepter had well consider'd the differences betwixt the present and the primitive Earth as to Obliquity of Position and that which follows from it length of nights he would have found no reason to have charg'd that Earth with nipping and freezing Cold where there was not I believe one morsel of Ice from one Pole to another As to his belief who can regard it It comprehends such things as no Christian Philosopher ever yet did nor ever can or will put into his Creed And as for the Fxcepter he has well consider'd the things he speaks of and still finds he has sufficient reason to charge the primitive Earth in its Rainy Regions with Nipping and freezing Cold even with a Cold more nipping and freezing than is felt in our Climate in the Winter Season Indeed he instances in one thing in this present Earth which he thinks should cast the Advantage for Coldness on our Climate's side that is the Length of Nights Ibid But consider all Circumstances aright and the real Advantage as to Cold will appear to be with the First Earth it s Rainy Regions must be colder than ours For in that Earth the Nights were continually twelve hours in length and in our Climate if we take one with another throughout the Winter Months we shall find that our Nights do not much exceed those in Length For tho in December they be above four hours longer than they yet in February they are never longer by two hours and an half and in the end of that Month
of the Moral and he sees thorough the Futuritions of both and hath so dispos'd the one as to serve him in his just Judgments upon the other But is this to satisfy or silence the Athiest Can the Answerer think that he who denies the being of a GOD should acknowledge his Attribute and consent to a Providence directed by Proescience This is as much as to say let an Atheist become no Atheist and then he will silence this Athiest's Cavils The Two Questions he puts in the Beginning of his Chapter touching GOD's Praescience are little to the purpose Inasmuch as the Athiest whom the Excepter justly brings in the silencing of his Cavils being the aim of the Theory does absolutely disown and disavow the Property together with the Essence of the GLORIOUS DEITY However let us reply to these Questions that nothing may seem to be pass'd over which but looks as if it required an Answer The first Question is this Suppose Adam had not sinn'd what would have become of the Messiah p. 17. and the Dispensation of the Gospel Why then the Messiah need not have been born nor need the Gospel have been dispensed And truly both the Incarnation of the one and the Dispensation of the other might have been prevented or put by without any stop or interruption in the Course of nature made by the intervention of a miraculous Power But the like cannot be affirmed of the Deluge For had that been put off the order of Nature must thereby have been broken and the hand of Omnipotence must have supported the Earth by the strength of Miracle Else in a certain period of time in that Juncture suppose when the Flood according to the Theory fell out it must have suffered Disruption and have sunk into the Abyss But it is farther urged that the Dispensation of the Gospel is said to be very early determin'd Ibid. in Scripture that is It must be allowed therefore that that Determination had respect to mans Sin But that the like may be allowed to the Theory of the Flood it must be prov'd as well that the Deluge was decreed or determin'd to come in according to its Method And where has Scripture determin'd that as it did things relating to the Blessed MESSIAH and his eternal Gospel But This believe it is a lofty Instance to be fetcht down into comparison with a phansiful Hypothesis The next therefore is of a lower strain upon which the Second Question runs which is This. Ibid. Suppose Adam had not eaten the forbidden Fruit how could he and all his Posterity have liv'd in Paradise A few Generations would have fill'd that place and should the rest have been turn'd out into the wide World without any sin or fault of theirs To it we Reply First that if Adam had not eaten the foibidden fruit yet it does not appear that he and all his Posterity were to have liv'd in Paradise For That in a few ages might not only have been sufficiently replenisht but overcharg'd with Inhabitants Secondly when that place had been filled and the rest as the Answerer expresses it must have been turn'd out into the wide World yet they being without sin should not have felt the Inconveniences which we do For as the Barrenness of the Earth so many Inconveniences perhaps secondary Causes of it might proceed from the Curse of GOD pull'd down upon the Ground by the sin of man And thus much Moses has left upon record that as the Earth by GOD's blessing brought forth useful Products while man stood Gen. 1.12 so Thorns and Thistles were the just effect or punishment of his Fall Gen. 3.18 But then as the Answerer has noted that a Supernatural curse might have its effect in any position of the Earth so it is as certain P. 29. that a supernatural Blessing might have its proper effects too And if GOD as he says Ibid. can make a Land barren if he think fit in spite of the Course of Nature then in spite of the Course of nature he can as well make it fruitful and pleasant And therefore so he might have made the Praediluvian earth had not Adam eat the forbidden fruit notwithstanding its oblique Position to the Sun Then as there should have been no Death amongst men so there should have been nothing like it or tending to it No such excessive heat and cold as now rage in several Climates No such noxious Vapours and Exhalations as now rise from or breath out of the Earth No such impurities and unwholsom corruptions as now breed in and distemper the Air No such blustring Storms and violent Tempests as now disquiet and toss and cause Breaches by the Sea No such mighty Floods and dreadful Earthquakes as now do unspeakable Mischiefs at Land But mens Souls being upright and clear from sin their Bodies should have been safe from dangers and free from sufferings and the security and pleasure of their outward Condition would have been answerable to their inward Peace and Purity When Israel pass'd through the Arabian Desert because they were a chosen and peculiar People and dear unto his MAJESTY the ALMIGHTY sav'd them from the great Inconveniences of that desolate Region by ministring to their Wants most sutable and seasonable Defensatives and Supplies Thus the Drieness of the place and the lack of Waters he supplied by the streams from Rocks Its Barrenness or lack of Food by Quails and Manna It s heat and lack of shades by a Cloudy Canopy It s Wildness and lack of Roads and Way-marks by the Pillar of a Cloud guiding them by day when their Camp moved and by a Pillar of fire leading them by night The lack of new Cloaths and the lack of new shooes by the lastingness of their old ones and by their not wearing out And when the Good GOD had such care and kindness for a sinful People yea for a stubborn perverse and provoking Generation as thus to sence and furnish them against the most grievous external Inconveniences that could readily beset them we may well conclude how tender he would have been of an Innocent World and how inconceivably gracious and indulgent to them in the like Nature The wide World therefore should not have been inconvenient to Adam and his Posterity as this World now is to us if he had not eaten the forbidden fruit The supernatural Blessing of Heaven would then have made their Circumstances happy upon Earth Nor should they ever have overstockt it tho they had multiply'd never so fast For still as they grew aged that they might not grow too numerous they might in due time have been translated hence as Enoch was to the higher State of bliss and felicity Nor is there any thing here overstrain'd in the least For tho we must not be too bold with Extraordinary Providence in the Philosophic Schools it was ever a standing Hypothesis in the Church And upon the principle of it the most glorious Phaenomenaes of
seen that primigenial Mass to have come at length into the steddy form of a Region of earth Now that Body which is led into its form by the laws of Gravity and Levity must certainly be made Mechanically And the Earth being brought into its form by the sole guidance of those Laws its formation must be meerly Mechanical And then upon whom rests the Injustice here and the guilt of raising a false accusation A plain Untruth But for all this the Answerer says That the Construction of the Earth was not meerly Mechanical in the opinion of the Theorist you may see Eng. Theor. p. 65. That is he says and unsays and is so like a Proteus in his Philosophy that 't is hard to discern his shape and colour Then he brings two other Complaints against the Excepter One for citing the first Edition of the Theory for things left out in the Second The other Answ p. 26. for defective Citations The first In the Introduction had its answer in the beginning of the Reply The Second must be better made out before it can deserve one And whereas to shew that the aforesaid Places of Scripture cited by the Theory were but figurative the Excepter confronted them with that one Text instead of many who shaketh the Earth out of her place Disc p. 155. and the Pillars thereof tremble which cannot be literally interpreted The Answerer will not allow Pillars there to be understood literally for this worthy reason Even because there are no such Pillars of the Earth upon any Hypothesis Answ p. 27. So that it seems Hypotheses are not to be regulated by Scripture-Expressions but the signification or sense of them is to be overul'd and determin'd by Hypotheses At which rate the Hands and Eyes of ALMIGHTY GOD in the holy Bible must be or at least may be understood literally as being agreeable to the Hypothesis of the Anthropomorphites CHAP. VIII THis Chapter treats of the perpetual Equinox of the Theory before the Flood And the Answerer would fain make the World believe that the Excepter thinks that the Earth when it changed its supposed Situation or Right Position to the Sun was translated from the Equator into the Ecliptick Ib. and that before the change in the Antediluvian state it mov'd directly under the Equator A pretty Mistake indeed had it been really thus But we shall see it proved just as some other false Charges have been However to show that his Will is good he endeavours to squeeze Evidence out of these the Excepter's words So that in her annual motion about the Sun she was carried directly under the Equinoctial without any manner of obliquity in her site or declination towards either of the Tropics in her course And therefore could never cut the Equinoctial by passing as now she is presum'd to do from one Tropic to the other Now pray was not the Ecliptic the Equinoctial in the Theorist's first World And was not the Earth carried directly under the Equinoctial And was not that World without Tropics And must it not be true then that the Earth never cut the Equinoctial by passing as she is now presum'd to do from one Tropic to the other But where does the Excepter speak a word here of her being translated from the Equator at the change of her position or of her moving directly under it in the Antediluvian state So far was he from that that what he says is of the quite contrary Importance As shewing that the Earth moved always under the Equinoctial of the Praediluvian World which was the Ecliptick and could not possibly have an Excursion to the Tropics as now she has For in that State there were no such things And besides that the words cited carry this sense most plainly in them the Excepter Disc p. 158. in the very Sentence immediatly preceding them declares that by the Earth's right situation to the Sun is meant that the axis of the Earth was always kept in a Parallelism to that of the Ecliptick And could it then in the Antediluvian state move directly under the Equator Or could the Answerer perceive as his word is that the Excepter thought it did so Then his Perception was more quick than true And now it is to be hop'd that he will better perceive that he might have spar'd those Leavers and Pullies Answ p. 27. he speaks of for removing the Earth And so he might have done the unlucky Screws of this unhappy Mistake A mistake whereby he would have forc'd the Excepters words into a crooked meaning but they only make his own Observation stand awry But that the Earth had a Direct Situation to the Sun causing a perpetual Equinox is very unlikely said the Excepter Disc p. 159. for this Reason Because then the same would have remained until now or else in the World there would have been found a more full account of the Change thereof To this the Answerer opposes that other things are lost out of memory Answ p. 28. And instances in two the Age of the World and the place of Paradise But Time and Place are but Circumstances of things and so might sooner and more easily slip out of mind Whereas the Loss of the Equinox by the variation of the Earth's Position would not only have been a real but a mighty thing For it must have been attended not only with a strange Alteration as to Seasons of the year as to the Temperature of the Air and as to the condition of the Earth but also with sensible Effects upon the Bodies of men as Heat Cold c. Which Effects would not only have caused Noah and his Family to Observe this Change so mighty in its Consequences as well as in it self but likewise would have so far imprinted and set home the Observation upon them as to have given occasion to a lasting traditional Remembrance of the same And what if the just Age of the World be lost the Hebrews Greeks and Latins differing about it and Chronology being a difficult thing subject to innumerable intricacies and entanglements Yet 't is clear enough that the World had a Beginning And what if we be at a loss for the true Place of Paradise which was known to none but Adam and Eve and which GOD perhaps design'd to bury out of the memory of men as he did Moses's Body out of Israel's knowledge to prevent Superstition Yet still that there was a Paradise is most certain But this is that which the pretended Equinox fails in in the truth or certainty of its Existence We have no Evidence no clear and convincing Evidence to prove that it ever was in Nature The Excepter farther objected Disc p. 166. that Scripture does not favour this Equinox but rather discountenance it And to make the Objection good he cited Gen. 8.22 While the Earth remaineth seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and night
the days were longer or shorter there must be thirty of them he should have considered that these thirty days were to be of such a length just as that that Number of them might make a Solar Month. For supposing them either longer or shorter than so they could not be such days as the Scripture speaks of because thirty of them still made such a Month. Whereas if they had been shorter as there must have been more so if they had been Longer fewer would have done it And thus the Answerer's design of throwing a Blunder upon the Excepter is quite defeated and while he made an awkward Blow at him he only struck and wounded himself Yet the Dust he here raises can neither hide the Objection which the Excepter made nor yet so blind the Reader 's eyes as that he should not see it remains unanswered For after all if the Contiguity of the Sphaere of the Exterior Earth with the Abyss ceased by reason the Waters of the Abyss were exhaled that Sphaere of the Earth must be carried about with less Celerity than before it was Especially if the Moon came late into the Earth's Neighbourhood which being an heavy Luggage in the outward part of the Earth's Vortex like a Clog hang'd upon the Rim of a Wheel would make it turn more slowly as the Excepter objected But because we have hinted that Scripture gives us to understand that there were twelve Months in the Antediluvian year and thirty days in each of those Months it will not be amiss to conclude this Chapter with showing how Scripture makes the things out In the eighth of Genesis then and the fifth verse it informs us that the waters decreased until the tenth Month. And after this that at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark v. 6th And that he stayed yet other seven days and sent forth the Dove v. 10th And that he stayed yet other seven days and sent forth the Dove again v. 12th Which fifty four days following the first day of the tenth Month on which the tops of the Mountains were seen v. 5th show that there must be twelve months in the year and indeed they make them up so many bating five days which we must suppose were still to run out before the first Month of the next year came in v. 13th And then it shows that there were thirty days in each Month. For first we find twenty seven days in one Month in this Chapter v. 14th And as we read in the Seventh Chapter the Waters prevailed upon the Earth one hundred and fifty days v. 24th Yet they began to come in the seventeenth day of the second month v. 11th and they began to decrease by the seventeenth day of the seventh month Chap. 8th v. 3d. Whence it is plain that the hundred and fifty days made just five months during which the Waters prevailed and so every month must consist of thirty days CHAP. IX IN the beginning of this Chapter relating to the Oval Figure of the first Earth he goes about to rectify a Principle of the Excepter's Answ p. 38. That terrestrial Bodies have a nitency inwards or downwards towards their Central point But let this be understood of Self-centred and Quiescent Earthly Bodies and the Assertion will need no Rectification And so the Excepter really meant it should be understood For he was not yet come to Consider the Mass upon which the Primitive Earth was founded as turning upon its own Center See Disc p. 190. but was going on towards the Consideration The Waters of that Mass Globular at first rising up above the Aequator by its gyration upon its own Axis became oval and so made the Earth of that Figure defluendo ad latera Disc p. 193 194. Answ p. 39. by flowing down at the sides of the Globe So the Theorist said at first To this word the Excepter spake so home that the Answerer we see was almost angry by the Reflections he makes We will therefore touch that tender place no more for fear of giving farther Provocation And we the rather forbear to press upon it because the Answerer we find is sensible it is sore by the Plaister he is fain to apply to it For now he has explain'd that word by another as he tells us namely Detrusione Ib. Let us therefore to the Thing Only in our passage to it it will not be amiss to observe his humour When he was fain to flinch and forc'd thus to shift from one word to another he falls upon the Excepter with a causeless censure of Pedantry and little triumphs He resolves that is to shoot Powder where he wants Bullets and at the same time that he gives Ground he will be as fierce as if he gain'd it Very pleasant to see to that he who blamed strong Passions as producing weak Arguments should thus by his Anger show his Impotence But we are to consider the Thing And here the Answerer interrogates Ib. May not waters ascend by force and detrusion when it is the easiest way they can take to free themselves from that force and persevere in their motion Without all Question they may provided that force and detrusion be of power sufficient to compel them to ascend against the Principle of their natural Gravity and such extrinsic accidental Obstacles as may chance to lye in their way and hinder them But what then He goes on Ib. This is the case we are speaking to They were impell'd to ascend or recede from the Center and it was easier for them to ascend laterally than to ascend directly upon an inclin'd Plain than upon a perpendicular one This assertion wants a great deal of Proof For that the Waters of the Chaos should through the Circumgyration of it rise or ascend any way is very improbable as being bound down by the circumambient Air which is carried about therewith Fill a sphaerical Glass with water and then turn it swiftly upon its own Center However the water in this Glass may have a strong and constant Conatus during that its Motion towards rising up yet certain it is the Glass that contains it would keep it from swelling out beyond those Bounds to which it self confines it In like manner the Body of the Air in which at that time was the whole matter of the Exterior Earth diffused surrounding the entire Element of the Water would have kept that from actual receding from the Center tho it were impregnated with a conatus that way 'T is confess'd if we take a Globe and turn it round swiftly Water or Sand if we lay either upon it will fly off it violently And one reason is because the ambient Air does not turn with this Globe but gliding close upon its wheeling Surface by a renitency against it sweeps off whatever lies loose upon it But were the Air about it carried round with it the lightest things that lye loosest on its Superficies would rest
there unmoved supposing it the proper Center of their Gravity And for the same reason finest Dust lies undisturb'd even upon the tops of highest Mountains tho they whisk about with such celerity as no humane Art and strength can imitate And if the Earth's Rotation as rapid as it is cannot cause small Dust to rise from Hills in way of recession from the Center much less could it produce that great effect upon the Mass of Water which as it was a vast and ponderous Body so it couched the closer to the Earth under it And the truth is as to a competent or sufficient Cause of the Wate 's supposed Rise or Ascent we are yet at a loss For the Cause assigned is Detrusion Detrusion made by the superambient Air. Answ p. 39. Methinks the Observator might have conceiv'd this Detrusion of waters towards the Poles by the resistance of the superambient Air. But now if this Cause fail'd and was not able to detrude the Waters at the Equinoctial where they were to be thrust down Or which is worse if it be sound a more effectual Cause to detrude them at the Poles where they were to rise up what then becomes of this Assertion we ore upon or of that Essential of the Theory it relates to the Oval form of the Primitive Earth Yet in Reality thus it was The Air that should have depress'd or thrust down the Waters at the Aequator of the liquid Globe was more dispos'd to do it at its Polar parts For the Sun moving always in the Equinoctial of that Globe the Air thereabouts must needs be very hot and so very thin and so very yielding and so less able to resist and detrude the Waters And on the contrary the Sun being always very distant from the Poles the Air in those parts must needs be more cold and so more thick and so more stiff and heavy and so more fit to make Resistance and Detrusion there than any where else Yet see the unluckiness of this contrivance the Waters were to rise higher there much higher at the Poles where the Air would most resist them and to be thrust down lowest at the Aequator by the Air where it could least depress them And if by the Air 's Resistance be meant any thing else but a meer Detrusion arising from its natural weight which as is said had most force to keep the Waters down where it was most needful they should have risen up such a Resistance cannot be conceived considering that the whole Mass of the Air was carried about in Circumgyration with the Globe of Water The Deserts of Biledulgerid Lybia c. lie betwixt the Aequator and our Northern Tropic and so within the compass of that Latitude where the Waters of the liquid Globe should have felt a Resistance of the Air. But what reason have we to believe they did so when the light or running Sands there are no more ruffled or in the least stirred by such Resistance than if they were a crust of Flint or Adamant and the like may by said of Mare del Zur It lies under the Line and so in the Equinoctial part of this Terraqueous Globe Which being there of the biggest Circumference it must turn thereabouts most swiftly and so cause the greater resistance of the Air were there any such thing and that would produce as great a disturbance in the Water But on the contrary so quiet and still and smooth and even is this vast Ocean that it is called the Pacific Sea And if these spatious Waters so exactly fitted for this Resistance both by their situation and immensely wide and far extended Surface feel nothing of it now why should or how could the waters of the Abyss do it at first No the Air resisted and detruded then but as it does now That is so far as its own Gravity caused a Compression Which as it was gentle so it was general comparing the entire Globe at once with a soft constringency Only there was reason as we have shewed why this compression should be lightest at the Equinoctial and why it should be heaviest at the Poles of the Globe and why it could not make such Resistance or Detrusion as is imputed to the Air. In short If it did make Resistance either it was gentle and would only have rimpled the Surface of the turning Waters as the Subsolanus does which blows constantly about the Equator and so would not have been of force sufficient to depress them into an oval Figure or else it was violent and so would have discompos'd the Abyss so much that the Earth could never have been founded upon it And truly what less than such a violence as would so have discompos'd it could alter the Figure of it But yet that there neither was nor could be such a violent resistance made by the Air as to detrude the Waters of the Chaotic Mass may I think be demonstrated from the Motion of the Moon Her Distance from hence in her Perigee or nearest approach to us is about 51 Semidiameters of the Earth in her Apogee or farthest remove from us about 65. To take a moderate or middling Distance therefore betwixt both let us suppose her always 56 of those Semidiameters off us And then let us suppose again that she performs her Periodical Circuit in 28 Days tho she does it in less Now she absolving her Circuit at 56 Semidiameters distance from the Earth in 28 Days in case She were but 28 Semidiameters distant which is but half the Space she must do it in 14 Days which is but half the time And so were she distant but 14 Semidiameters she must do it consequently in 7 Days According to which proportion the Air towards the Earth at the heighth of one Semidiameter above it must wheel about as fast as the Earth it self does to the space of half a Day Now every Semidiameter of the Earth containing says Mr. Rohault Tract Phys par 2. cap. 12. near 1431 Leagues or 4293 English Miles hence it will follow that the Air at the heighth of 2146 Miles turns about as fast as the Earth bating but 6 Hours And at the heighth of 1073 Miles as fast as that bating 3 Hours And so at the heighth of 357 Miles to avoid fractions to one Hour Which divide into 60 parts because in an Hour there are 60 Minutes and the Air at the heighth of 6 Miles must turn as fast as the Earth in round reckoning to the space of one Minute And if we drive down the Account so low at 3 quarters of a Miles heighth it must turn as fast to the eighth part of a Minute And so just on its Surface even with it And when the Air encompassing the Earth does thus conspire and circulate with it in its Gyration how could it possibly resist the Waters of the turning Abyss so as to change their figure from Sphaerical to Oval Nor will the Answerer's Simile help here unless it be
he said He was before the Mountains what did he say less if the Mountains were made in the time of the Flood the World having stood above sixteen hundred and fifty years before that came in And whereas the Answerer suggests Ib. that the Psalmist's words might have a gradation in them from a lower Epocha to an higher when he said before the Mountains were brought forth and the Earth and the World were made Let him show when and where any such gradation was ever made use of by an inspired Writer to set out the Eternity of the EVERLASTING GOD. And whereas he adds as for that place in Prov. 8. it would be very hard to reduce all those things that are mentioned there from ver 22. to the 30 to the same time of existence Let him show if he pleases why the things there mention'd called GOD's Works of old may not very easily be reduced as to their first existence within the time of the six days of Creation Disc p. 202. Moses the Excepter added mentions lasting hills and ancient Mountains Deut. 33.15 But he would hardly have call'd them so had they risen at the Flood because then they would have been but few ages older than himself that is about seven hundred years To this it is answered the River Kishon is call'd the ancient River Answ p. 43. but I do not therefore think it necessary that that brook should have been before the flood Nor does he think it necessary that several other things should have been before the Flood Yea his Hypothesis makes it necessary that they should not then be But does it follow ever the more from hence that they were not He goes on Things may very well deserve that Character of lasting Ib. or ancient tho they be of less antiquity than the Deluge as lasting Pyramids and ancient Babylon But were the Mountains supposing them made at the Flood as lasting and ancient in Moses's time as the Pyramids and Babylon are now Disc p. 205 The next Argument was drawn from the Mountains in the Moon They as we are told are better than four times as high as the Mountains of the Earth And therefore they seem to be her native Features rather than Effects of her Dissolution For had they been raised by her being dissolved they could not have been so strangely over-proportion'd to the Mountains of the Earth she being a much less Planet than that And in case the Moon had Mountains from the beginning why might not the Earth have so too Answ p. 44. T is easy to see the Answerer says that this is no good Argument For besides that the Orb there might be more thick all ruines do not fall alike And 't is as easy to see that this is no good Answer For the Moon being more than forty times less than the Earth the Chaos out of which She was formed at first must be more than forty times less than the Earth's Chaos was else she could never have been so little For a larger Chaos would have contained more matter and more matter would have made her Dimensions bigger But if the Chaos out of which the Moon was made was forty times less than that out of which the Earth arose then it s central Earth together with its Abyss and exterior Orb must be so much less than the same parts of the Earth respectively were as being made of Ingredients which were forty times less than theirs And so the Orb of the Moon could not possibly be thicker than the Orb of the Earth nor could its Mountains be higher than the Earths Mountains are much less above four times higher upon that account And then as to the falling of its Ruines if we allow it to have been done with all imaginable Advantages which way could they have pil'd themselves up so much higher than the ruines of the Earth Especially if we consider that their Materials were alike I speak of the primitive Bodies of the Earth and Moon their Figures alike and also the manner of their Dissolution Only if we suppose the Earth to have been twenty thousand miles in perimeter the Moon must be less than five hundred As to the Historical Arguments alledg'd in this case he demands over and over why they were mention'd But such Questions had an anticipative Answer made to them in our Discourse and that excuses all farther reply p. 207. In the next place he falls upon the Excepter's Conjecture about the Original of Mountain And in this New Hypothesis as he calls it Answ p. 45 46. he finds many palpable defects or oversights whereof he says this is one of the grossest that he supposes the Sun by his heat the third day to have raised the Mountains of the Earth whereas the Sun was not created till the fourth day But here he relapses into his wonted Infirmity of Mistaking egregiously Another Mistake For first the Excepter did not suppose that the Sun alone rais'd the Earth's Mountains This plainly appears from what he said in his entrance upon the Conjecture Disc p. 208. That Nature might have a considerable stroke in the Work And if Nature were to have but a considerable stroke in that work the whole of it could not be done by the Sun No the main part of it was still to be effected by the hand of GOD. And the concurrence of his Power with the influence of the Sun in producing Mountains the Excepter acknowledged in these words Disc p. 209. Tho GOD could and 't is like did produce them another way I will venture to guess HE might do it thus So that still it was HE that is GOD who thus produced the Mountains not the Sun alone And then follows an account how or wherein the Sun help'd forward this extraordinary Work tho he must not be understood to accomplish the same by his own sole and proper efficiency but as he was an Instrument in the hand of Omnipotence and so inabled to do that which of himself he could never have done Tho I must add withal that at that time he was capable of doing a great deal in this Work For 1st Perhaps he had then no Maculaes about him which now swimming upon his face in great abundance do check and damp and weaken his influence 2dly There being then a Flaâ—uous Moisture in the Earth put into it on purpose to make it Heave His piercing Beams soon gave it such an heat and agitation as made it dilate it self with furious Rarefaction 3ly The Earth it self being then most light and soft and unctuous was also of a more pliant yielding nature and so more apt and easie to ascend Lastly The Pores of this Earth being then close shut and the vehement Vapours rarefy'd within having no other possible way to get out but by elevating the Ground which lay upon them and so confin'd and kept them down no wonder if they threw it up with a mighty
two Cubits of Quails could cover this Camp then fifteen Cubits of Water might cover these Mountains And as for the Tops of the Mountains they are no where said to be covered any more than the top of the Camp was But he says the Tops of the Mountains were discover'd Answ p. 70. when the Waters began to decrease Gen. 8.5 Is not that a plain demonstration that they were cover'd before and cover'd with those Waters To this Objection also an answer was given by the Excepter Disc Ch. 16. §. 5. However to make it more full we are content to recite part of what was formerly said and to add somewhat new as occasion requires We say therefore that the tops of the Mountains being discovered upon the decrease of the Waters is no demonstration that they were covered with them for they might be discovered by their Emergency out of darkness Upon that Answer he brings this Quaery Answ p. 73. Where finds he this Account 't is neither in the Text nor in Reason It was fairly gathered out of both as plainly appears in our Discourse The holy Text we went upon was Gen. 8. ult Where day being settled upon the recovering World the very settling of it then implies that in time of the Flood the Earth was strangely benighted And for a Reason was suggested the Exclusion of Frost Which had not the Air been very thick thick enough to hide the Tops of the Mountains from the Eyes of men would have seiz'd the Waters with exceeding vehemence and have thereby hindred the so speedy drying of the Earth But he goes on in his way of objecting If it was always so dark and the Tops of the Mountains and Rocks naked and prominent every where Ib. how could the Ark avoid them in that darkness And could it by an ordinary Providence have avoided them in the Light For tho the H. GHOST in that Description which he was pleas'd to give of the Ark descends even to Particulars and that to the very Door and the Window of it yet He hints not the least concerning a Rudder belonging to it And being destitute of that there could be nothing whereby to turn or govern it but at all times it must be left to drive right on whatever Dangers tho great and visible might come in its way Or say it had an Helm yet what Pilot without inspiration could have steer'd its Course safely in those perilous new-made Seas upon Earth Where as Rocks and Banks and Flats and Sands were thick set and innumerable so there was not so much as one Buoy or Sea-mark which by showing any of them might help to shun them And as these dangers according to the Common Hypothesis would have been equal when first this Vessel was set afloat so according to the Theory they would have been much greater He continues to object Ib. I see no reason to imagine that there would be darkness after the forty days rain For he the Excepter says the Atmosphaere was never so exhausted of Vapours and never so thin as when the waters were newly come down Tho the Atmosphaere was never so exhausted of Vapours and never so thin as at that time in the vast Body or general Comprehension of it upwards yet here below the Air might still be foggy and thick So we are often invelop'd with caliginous Mists in this lower Region next the Earth when let them but disperse and wear off and the heaven above is most serene and in the Skie there 's nothing but glorious day He objects still Ib. p. 74. It was in the Tenth month that they the Mountains begun to be seen when the Waters were decreas'd 't was therefore the Waters not the gross Air that hindred the sight of them before For if according to the method of the Excepter the Deluge begun to decrease after the first forty days rain by the Sun 's resolving waters into Vapours and Exhalations this in proportion must lessen the waters of the Deluge But we do not read in Moses of any abatement in the Deluge till the end of one hundred and fifty days Gen. 8.3 which is four Months after this term Nor do we imagine that there was any considerable abatement of the Waters till that time For after the Flood was come to its height it was necessary it should stand there a good while the better to effect that fatal destruction of the Animal World for which it was sent Yet during the time that the Flood was thus Stationary we suppose that GOD did work no Miracle for we read of none to weaken Nature in its force and put by its proper Operations And so the Sun which had then a more than ordinary power upon the outragious and prevailing Waters as shining on them through a thinner Medium than ever yet he did could not but turn them a great pace into Misty Vapours and Exhalations And these ascending swiftly and copiously to replenish the Atmosphaere so lately emptied by excessive Resolution might render the Mountains as Mists always do quite invisible at a little Distance Yet this work being done only by Nature's hand or to use the Answerer's elegant style by the Sun 's setting his Engines awork tho it was carried on for several Months the diminution of the Waters I say might be inconsiderable So inconsiderable as not to be worth the Spirits notice And withal so ineffectual that if some better course had not been taken the Waters would have remain'd a very long time upon the drowned Earth beyond the hundred and fifty days mention'd without any considerable degree of abatement For if in the hundred and ten days succeeding those in which the rains fell the Waters went up in misty Vapours towards restoring the Atmosphaere to its lost Consistency in such a quantity as to sink the Flood suppose but one or two Cubits tho this reeking evaporation might so darken the Air as to hide the Mountains yet how little would such a diminution of the Deluge be taken notice of by Heaven or how little would it contribute to drying of the Earth And therefore to speed the work which by the strength of Nature went on but slowly GOD made use of a certain Wind Gen. 8.1 as an extraordinary Instrument And by this added at length to the Attractive influence of the Sun the Waters asswaged so very fast that as the SPIRIT notes on the first day of the Tenth Month the Tops of the Mountains were seen Gen. 8.5 And whereas the sacred Story makes the appearance of these Mountain-tops to follow the decrease of the Deluge-waters nothing could be done more properly according to the tenour of this new Hypothesis For in case the Waters had not been decreased and so decreased as to have refill'd the Atmosphaere with Vapours and so decreased as to have dampt the attractive power of the sun and so decreased as to be drawn so low and grown so gross and foul and heavy as to