that 't would have fallen far short of it have wanted a very noble and large share of the Creation which we enjoy been deprived of a most excellent and wholsome Fare and very many delicious Dishes that we have the use and benefit of But the Case was really much otherwise and we have as good proof as could be wish'd that there were not any of all these wanting The things many of them yet extant speak aloud for themselves and are back'd with an early and general Tradition For Moses is so far from being singular in thus relating that the Sea is of as old a Date and Standing as the Earth it self is that he hath all even the first and remotest Antiquity of his side the Gentil Account of the Creation making the Ocean to arise out of the Chaos almost as soon as any thing besides But we have in store a yet further Testimony that will be granted to be beyond all Exception 'T is from the mouth of God himself being part of the Law promulgated by him in a most solemn and extraordinary manner Exod. 20.11 In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the SEA and all that in them is 'T is very hard to think the Theorist should not know this and as hard that knowing it he should so openly dissent from it Then for the Dimensions of the Sea that it was as large and of as great extent as now it is may be inferr'd from the vast Multitudes of those Marine Bodies which are still found in all Parts of the known World Had these been found in only one or two places or did we meet with but some few Species of them and such as are the Products of one Climate or Country it might have been suspected that the Sea was then what the Caspian is only a great Pond or Lake and confined to one part of the Globe But seeing they are dug up at Land almost every where 〈◊〉 at least as great variety and plenty as they are observed at Sea since likewise the fossil Shells are many of them of the same kinds with those that now appear upon the neighbouring Shores and the rest such as may well be presumed to be living at the bottom or in the interiour and deeper Parts of the adjacent Seas but never any that are peculiar to remoter Seas or to the Shores of distant Countries we may reasonably conclude not only that the Sea was of the same bigness and capacity before the Deluge but that it was of much the same form also and interwoven with the Earth in like manner as at this time that there was Sea in or near the very same places or Parts of the Globe that each Sea had its peculiar Shells and those of the same Kinds that now it hath that there was the same diversity of Climates here warmer and more agreeable to the Southern Shells there colder and better suited to the Northern ones the same variation of Soils this Tract affording such a Terrestrial Matter as is proper for the Formation and Nourishment of one sort of Shell-fish that of another in few words much the same Appearance of Nature and Face of Things that we behold in the present Earth But of this more by and by That the Water of the Sea was salt as now it is may be made out likewise from those Shells and other the Productions of it they being of the same constitution and consisting of the same sort of Matter that do the Shells at this day found upon our Shores Now the Salt wherewith the Sea-water is saturated is part of the Food of the Shell-fish residing therein and a main Ingredient in the Make of their Bodies they living upon this and upon the Mud and other Earthy Matter there And that the Sea Ebbed and Flowed before the Deluge may be inferr'd not so moch from the Necessity of that Motion and the many and great Uses of it in the Natural World as from certain Effects that it had upon the Shells and other like Bodies yet preserved 'T is known that the Sea by this Access and Recess shuffling the empty Shells or whatever else lies exposed upon the Shores and bearing them along with it backward and forward upon the Sand there frets and wears them away by little and little in tract of time reducing those that are concave and gibbose to a flat and at length grinding them away almost to nothing And there are not uncommonly found Shells so worn enclosed amongst others in Stone As the Sea-shells afford us a sure Argument of a Sea so do the River-ones of Rivers in the Antediluvian Earth And if there were Rivers there must needs also have been Mountains for they will not flow unless upon a Declivity and their Sources be raised above the Earth's ordinary Surface so that they may run upon a Descent the Swiftness of their Current and the Quantity of Water refunded by them being proportioned generally to the height of their Sources and the Bigness of the Mountains out of which they arise Mountains being proved nothing need be said concerning Valleys they necessarily following from that Proof as being nothing but the Intervalls betwixt the Mountains But let us see what Moses hath on this Subject And the Waters he is treating of the Deluge prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth and all the HIGH HILLS that were under the whole Heaven were covered Fifteen Cubits upwards did the Waters prevail and the MOVNTAINS were covered And all flesh dyed all in whose Nostrils was the breath of Life The Theorist averrs that there were no Mountains in the first Earth I am not willing to suppose that he charges a Falshood or Mistake upon the Passage but rather that he would have this to be understood of those Mountains which were raised afterwards Which yet cannot be for the Historian here plainly makes these Mountains the Standards and Measures of the Rise of the Water which they could never have been had they not been standing when it did so rise and overpour the Earth His Intention in the whole is to acquaint us that all Land-Creatures whatever both Men Quadrupeds Birds and Insects perish'd and were destroyed by the Water Noah only excepted and they that were with him in the Ark. And at the same time to let us see the Truth and Probability of the Thing to convince us that there was no way for any to escape and particularly that none could save themselves by climbing up to the tops of the Mountains that then were he assures us that they even the highest of them were all covered and buried under Water Now to say that there were then no Mountains and that this is meant of Mountains that were not formed till afterwards makes it not intelligible and indeed hardly common Sense The extreme Fertility of both Sea and Land before the Deluge appears sufficiently from the vast and almost incredible Numbers of their Productions yet extant not
Nutrition of Vegetables but so that it should require Industry and Labour to excite it and not yeild a competent Crop without Tillage and Manure That by this means a great part of that time which the Inhabitants of the former Earth had to spare and whereof they made so ill use was employed and taken up in Digging and Plowing in making provision for bread and for the Necessities of Life and the Excess of Fertility which contributed so much to their Miscarriages was retracted and cut off That had the Deluge been aimed only at Mankind and its utmost design meerly to punish that Generation and thereby to deterr Posterity from the like Offences this might have been brought about by means much more compendious and obvious too and yet equally terrifying and exemplary Mankind I say might have been taken off at a far cheaper rate without this ransacking of Nature and turning all things topsie-turvy without this battering of the Earth and unhinging the whole frame of the Globe The Business might have been done as effectually by Wars the Heart of every Man of them was in the hand of God and he could easily have made them Executioners of his Wrath upon one another He had the command of Famine of Pestilence and a thousand other Disasters whereby he could have carried them off by sholes yea swept them all clear away Besides he had the whole Artillery of the Sky in his power and might presently have Thunder struck them all or destroyed them by Fire from Heaven But none of all these were used though 't is most apparent that any of them would have been as fatal and pernicious to Man as the Deluge was for the Design lay a great deal deeper and these would have fallen short of it these would never have reach'd the Earth nor affected that in the least they could never have touch'd the Head or stop'd the source of these unhappy misdemeanours for which the Punishment was sent That was what nothing but a Deluge could reach and as long as the Cause remained as long as the old Temptation was still behind every Age would have lain under fresh Inducements to the same Crimes and there would have been a new necessity to punish and reclaim the World to depopulate the Earth and reduce it again to a vast Solitude as constantly as there succeeded a new Age and Race of Men. For the terror of the Calamity would not have extended it self much farther than the Men which suffered under the weight of it and a few Years would have worn out in great measure the Impressions it made This we see even from the Example of the Deluge it self As formidable as this was to those who lived at or near the time of it who saw the prodigious Devastations it made the horrible Methods by which 't was brought about and the Reason why 't was inflicted and to their Posterity for a few Generations yet the Fright was not lasting 't was not long e're the Sting of it was worn out And though the Elder Ages knew full well that there had been such a Deluge and had some Tradition of the cruel Desolation it made yet by degrees the Particulars of it were drop'd and the most frightful Passages bore the least share in the Relation being probably so strange as to be hardly credible and carrying rather an appearance of Figment and Invention in those that handed down the memory of it than of Truth and Reality So that upon the whole 't is very plain that the Deluge was not sent only as an Executioner to Mankind but that its prime Errand was to reform and new-mold the Earth That therefore as much Harshness and Cruelty as this great Destruction of Mankind seemingly carries along with it as wild and extravagant a thing as that Dissolution of the primitive Earth appeared at first sight yet all the Severity lay in the Punishment of that Generation which yet was no more than what was highly just yea and necessary too and the whole of the Tragedy terminated there For the Destruction of the Earth was not only an Act of the profoundest Wisdom and Forecast but the most monumental proof that could ever possibly have been of Goodness Compassion and Tenderness in the Author of our Being and this so liberal too and extensive as to reach all the succeeding Ages of Mankind all the Posterity of Noah all that should dwell upon the thus renewed Earth to the End of the World by this means removing the old Charm the Bait that had so long bewildred and deluded unhappy Man setting him once more upon his Legs reducing him from the most abject and stupid Ferity to his Senses and to sober Reason from the most deplorable Misery and Slavery to a Capacity of being happy That notwithstanding that this Remedy struck as deep at the Intellectuals as at the Morals of Mankind that Ignorance and Rudeness would be as necessary a Consequence of it as Reformation of Life and that this so general Employ and Expence of their time would as assuredly curtail and retrench the ordinary means of Knowledge and Erudition as 't would shorten the Opportunities of Vice And so accordingly it fell out An universal Rusticity presently took place spread on all hands and stop'd not till it had over-run the whole stock of Mankind Those first Ages of the new World were simple and illiterate to Admiration and 't was a long time e're the Cloud was withdrawn e're the least spark of Learning I had almost said of Humanity broke forth or any Man betook himself to the promotion of Science Nay the Effects of it are visible to this hour a general Darkness yet prevails and hangs over whole Nations yea the far greater part of the World is still barbarous and savage I say tho 't was most evident that this Remedy must needs have this Consequence also as well as the other yet it was not suspended or chang'd upon that account An egregious and pregnant instance how far Vertue surpasses Ingenuity how much an honest Simplicity Probity of Mind Integrity and Incorruptness of Manners is preferable to fine Parts profound Knowledge and subtile Speculations I would not have this interpreted an invective against Humane Learning or a decrying any commendable Accomplishments either of Body or Mind that is what no Man will I hope suspect me of but only an intimation that these are not of any solid use or real advantage unless when aiding and serviceable to the other Nor does this grand Catastrophe only present us with Demonstrations of the Goodness but also of the Wisdom and Contrivance of its Author There runs a long train of Providence throâ— the whole and shines brightly forth of all the various Accidents of it The Consolidation of the Marble and of the Stone immediately after their Settlement to the bottom the disruption of the Strata afterwards their Dislocation the Elevation of some and Depression of others of them did not fall out at
by this means collected they are kept in store for the use of Mankind That though there had been both solid Strata to have condens'd the ascending Vapour and those so broken too as to have given free Vent and Issue to the Water so condensed yet had not the said Strata been dislocated likewise some of them elevated and others depress'd there would have been no Cavity or Chanel to give Reception to the Water of the Sea no Rocks Mountains or other Inequalities in the Globe and without these the Water which now arises out of it must have all stagnated at the Surface and could never possibly have been refunded forth upon the Earth nor would there have been any Rivers or running Streams upon the face of the whole Globe had not the Strata been thus raised up and the Hills exalted above the neighbouring Valleys and Plains whereby the Heads and Sources of Rivers which are in those Hills were also borne up above the ordinary Level of the Earth so as that they may flow upon a Descent or an inclining Plane without which they could not flow at all That this Affair was not transacted unadvisedly casually or at random but with due Conduct and just Measures That the quantity of Matter consolidated the Number Capacity and Distances of the Fissures the Situation Magnitude and Number of the Hills for the condensing and discharging forth the Water and in a word all other things were so ordered as that they might best conduce to the End whereunto they were designed and ordained and such provision made that a Country should not want so many Springs and Rivers as were convenient and requisite for it nor on the other hand be over-run with them and afford little or nothing else but a Supply every where ready suitable to the Necessities and Expences of each Climate and Region of the Globe For example those Countries which lye in the Torrid Zone and under or near the Line where the Heat is very great are furnished with Mountains answerable Mountains which both for Bigness and Number surpass those of colder Countries as much as the Heat there surpasses that of those Countries Witness the Andeâ— that prodigious Chain of Mountains in South America Atlas in Africa Taurus in Asia the Alpes and Pyrenees of Europe to mention no more By these is collected and dispensed forth a quantity of Water proportionable to the Heat of those Parts so that although by reason of the Excess of this Heat there the Evaporations from the Springs and Rivers are very great yet they being by these larger Supplies continually stock'd with an Excess of Water as great yeild a Mass of it for the use of Mankind the Inhabitants of those Parts of the other Animals and of Vegetables not much if at all inferiour to the Springs and Rivers of colder Climates That besides this the Waters thus evaporated and mounted up into the Air thicken and cool it and by their Interposition betwixt the Earth and the Sun skreen and fence off the ardent Heat of it which would be otherwise unsupportable and are at last returned down again in copious and fruitful Showers to the scorched Earth which were it not for this remarkably Providential Contrivance of Things would have been there perfectly uninhabitable laboured under an eternal Drought and have been continually parched and burnt To this former Section I shall add by way of Appendix A Dissertation concerning the Flux and Reflux of the Sea and it s other Natural Motions with an Account of the Gause of those Motions as also of the End and Vse of them and an Enquiry touching the Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing and some other uncommon Phaenomena of certain Springs A Discourse concerning the Saltness of the Sea A Discourse concerning Wind the Origin and Use of it in the Natural World PART III. SECT II. Of the Universality of the Deluge Of the Water which effected it Together with some further Particulars concerning it IN the precedent Section I consider the present and natural State of the Fluids of the Globe I ransack the several Caverns of the Earth and search into the Storehouses of Water and this principally in order to find out where that mighty Mass of Water which overflowed the whole Earth in the days of Noah is now bestowed and concealed as also which way 't is at this time useful to the Earth and its Productions and serviceable to the present Purposes of Almighty Providence Such a Deluge as that which Moses represents whereby All the high Hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered would require a portentous quantity of Water and Men of Curiosity in all Ages have been very much to seek what was become of it or where iâ— could ever find a Reservatory capable of containing it 'T is true there have been several who have gone about to inform them and set them to rights in this Matter but for want of that Knowledge of the present System of Nature and that insight into the Structure and Constitution of the Terraqueous Globe which was necessary for such an Undertaking they have not given the Satisfaction that was expected So far from it that the greatest part of these seeing no where Waâ—er â—nough to effect a General Deluge were forced at last to mince the Matter and make only a Partial one of it restraining it to one single Country to Asia or some lesser portion of Land than which nothing can be more contrary to the Mosaick Narrative For the rest they had recourse to Shifts which were not much better and rather evaded than solved the Difficulty some of them imagining that a quantity of Water sufficient to make such a Deluge was created upon that Occasion and when the business was done all disbanded again and annihilated Others supposed a Conversion of the Air and Atmosphere into Water to serve the turn Many of them were for fetching down I know not what supercoelestial Waters for the purpose Others concluded that the Deluge rose only fifteen Cubits above the Level of the Earth's ordinary Surface covering the Valleys and Plains but not the Mountains all equally wide of Truth and of the Mind of the Sacred Writer One of the last Undertakers of all seeing this began to think the Cause desperate and therefore in effect gives it up For considering how unsuccessful the Attempts of those who were gone before him had proved and having himself also employed his lâ—st and utmost endeavours to find out Waters for the Vulgar Deluge having mustered up all the Forces he could think of and all too little The Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these says he are all the Stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge he prepares for a Surrender asserting from a mistaken and defective Computation that all these will not come up to near the quantity requisite and that in any
c. †Viâ— pag. 55. seq ut pag. 95. †Part 1. pag. 68. †The Crystallized Bodies found in the perpendicular Intervalls are easily known from those which are lodged in the Strata even by one who did not take them thence or observe them there The former have always their Root as the Iewellers call it which 〈◊〉 only the Abruptness at that end of the Body whereby it adhered to the Stone or sides of the Intervalls which Abruptnâ—ss is caused by its being broke off from it Those which are found in the Strata of Earth Sand or the like having lain loose therein are intire â—â—d want that Mark of Adhesion but those which are inclosed in Stone Marble or such other solid Matter being difficulty separable from it because of its Adhesion to all sides of them have commonly some of that Matter still adhering to them or at least Marks of its Abruption from them on all their sides wherein these differ from those found in the perpendicular Intervalls they adhering 〈◊〉 we have noted by only one end Vid. Cons. 6 c. infra * Vid. Cons. 2. infra ‖ Vid. Consect 3. infra ‖ Vulgarly call'd Fungites * Or rather Stagonitae * Vid. Part 2. * Vid. Cons. 4. and 5. infra †Part 2. Consect 2. * Vid. Part 5. Cons. 1. ‖ Part 2. Cons. 2. * Vid. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 11. ‖ Conf. Part 5. Cons. 5. †Conf. Part 2. Cons. 3. †Vid. Pag. 174 supra ‖ Vid. Pag. 174. supra * Conf. Part 2. Cons. 3. 6. and Part 3. Sect. 2. Cons. 3. uti Part 4. Cons. 3. †Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. ‖ Ibid. * Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 4. †Conf. Cons. 12. 13. infra ‖ Vid. Pag. 178. supra * Vid. Pag. 178. supra * Confer Consect 3. Pag. 188. supra * Vid. Cons. 12. infra †Vid. Cons. 14. Infra * Part 3. Cons. 8. †Ibid. ‖ Conf. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. and Part 4. Cons. 5. * Part 1. Pag. 47. and Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. * Vid. Cons. 12. supra ‖ Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 12. pag. 139. 141. supra * Ib. pag. 135. †Confer Pag. 202. supra †Vid. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. ‖ Vid. Pag. 126. supra †Vid. pag. 141. supra * Vid. pag. 203. supra ‖ Vid. pag. 206. supra * Conf. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. †Part 2. Cons. 3. Part 4. Cons. 3. ‖ Cons. 5. c. supra †Conf. Cons. 1. supra * Part 5. Cons. 2. * Vid. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. Pag. 126. ‖ Vid. Cons. 2. supra †Ibid. †Ibid. †Conf. Pag. 172. Pag. 174. * Part 4. Cons. 4. †Ibid. Cons. 9. * Vid. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. †Confer Pag. 47. seq uâ—i Pag. 128. seq †Confer Pag. 47. seq uâ—i Pag. 128. seq * Part 2. Cons. 3. ‖ Vid. Pag. 65. 66. supra ‖ Part 2. Cons. 2. 3. †Part 2. Cons. 4. * Those which consist of Spar Flint c. I have considered above Part 4. Cons. 2. ‖ Vulgarly Pectinitae †Which are much more violent in some Countries than in others Vid. Part 3. Cons. 8. * Part 4. Cons. 14. pag. 215. †Part 1. Pag. 49. ‖ Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 13. * Part 2. pag. 89 90. ‖ Vid. Consect 5. supra * Confer Cons. 1. supra * Part 2. Cons. 2. †Theory of the Earth l. 1. c. 6. l. 2. c. 3. ‖ L. 1. c. 5. * Ibid. l. 2. c. 6. * Conf. Pag. 84. seq ‖ Conf. Part 2. †Gen. 1.9 10. * L. 1. c. 7. †Vers. 13. ‖ Vers. 21 22. * Vers. 28. †Conf. Pag. 6. Part 2. †Conf. Pag. 26. supra * Vid. pag. 22. 23. supra †Conf. pag. 48. 156. ‖ Part 3. Sect. 1. Pag. 153. 154. The Theorist I know supposes both the Antediluvian and the present Earth to be of an Oval Figure and protended towards the Poles as thinking that such a Figure would afford him a Plane so much inclined towards the AEquator that the Rivers might flow upon it though there were no Mountains But 't is plain they could not Nor are there any the least Grounds to believe that the first Earth was of that Figure If he had had any thing that had look'd like a Proof of it he had done well to have produced it But 't is manifest though we imagine the Earth formed that way he proposes it would not have fallen into any such Figure And for the present Earth 't is of a Figure as different from that which he assigns as it well could be it being a Sphaeroides Prolatus as appears from the late Discoveries concerning it * Gen. vii 19. seq * Vid. Part 2. †Conf. Pag. 32.66.77 Part 3. Sect. 2. Cons. 11. ‖ Gen. i. 20. seq * Pag. 22 23. Conf. Gen. i. 11 12 21 24 25. vi 20. †Gen. iv 22. ‖ Conâ—er Gen. vii 23. 1 Pet. iii. 20. * Gen. ii 11 12. ‖ Vers. 9. * Part 2. †Confer Pâ—râ— 2. Câ—nsâ—ct 3. ‖ In which Posture 't is probable the Olive-Tree lay from which the Dove pluck'd off the Leaf that she brought unto Noah Gen. viii 11. * Conf. pag. 113. supra ‖ Vid. pag. 97. supra * Vid. Parâ— 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. Pag. 125. †Gen. vii 11. In the second Month the seventeenth day of the Month were all the Fountains of the great Deep broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened Moses writing to the Jews his Country-men makes use of the Form of the Year then received amongst them which was indeed the first and most ancient but had been disused during the time of their Abode in Egypt and but newly re-establish'd when this was wrote Exod. xii 2. In this Nisan or as 't was also call'd Adib was the first Month and Ijar the second upon the 17th day whereof thé waters of the Deluge came forth according to this Relation And truly the time which is not d little remarkable falls within the Compass here chalk'd out by Nature so very punctually that one can scarcely forbear concluding that thâ—se Strokes and Lines of Nature and those of that Relation came both from the same Hand but this only by the by The Particulars of the Computation I here use shall be given at fall elsewhere they being too bulky for this place ‖ Conf. Part 3. Sect. 2. Conf. 5.