come down so fast and in so great abundance as easily to have overpowered the thin Oily Scum on which they fell and being a little soaked in it and incorporate with it have weighed it down in Flakes to the bottom of the Waters upon the top of which it could no longer float as being overloaded with the heaviness of the imbodied Earth And truly the flowing of the Waters with a strong head now this way and their returning by and by with as much force the contrary way must needs put them into such restless agitations and cross commotions as would have much promoted the diving of the Flakes aforesaid Nor are we to measure the motion of the Chaotic Waters from the present great Seas For however they may be less discomposed by Tides yet nature then was in other circumstances according to the Theory than it is now and those Waters might be moved at another rate than these are For our present Earth was at that time all dispersed in the Air. And the thicker and fuller the Air was the stronger pressure would the Moon make upon that and that again upon the Superficies of the Waters and consequently the higher must the Tides rise and the more violent must they be And then the Theory makes another motion in the Chaotick Waters necessary namely A Defluxion of them from the Aequator towards the Sides or Poles of the liquid Globe in order to the forming it and consequently the Earth to be raised on it into an Oval Figure And this motion might create a new disturbance in that Element Yea not only so but it might moreover be fatal to the rise of the Earth For the watry Globe was to grow oblong by the slowing down of the Waters to the sides they are the words of the Theory and the disburthening the middle parts about the Aequator But then when these Waters did thus recede or discharge themselves from about the Aequator or middle of the Globe and flow down to the sides of it how easily might the Oily Matter have followed their course Yea perhaps how necessary was it for it to do so While the uppermost Waters thereabouts being most hurried and most at liberty would have fallen back and carried that away with them But then if the upper Waters thus drew off and the Oily substance slid away upon them what foundation could the Earth have had in those middle parts we speak of Especially if these Waters continued their course for any time as it was needful they should to bring about the effect mentioned For so vast a body of Waters as that of the Abyss could not by this means of a perfectly round be made into an oval or oblong Figure on a sudden 3. But in reference to this matter there is a Douâ—t made by the Theorist which must be considered and removed Otherwise most of what has been said touching the instability and fluctuation of these Waters will be vain and groundless The Doubt is Whether the Moon were then in our neighbourhood And truly I had almost said he might next have questioned whether the Sun were then in our Heaven there being in the Story of the Creation no better evidence for the one than for the other I confess the suggestion as wild as it is would have done the Arcadians a great kindness For they used to boast of what was always a Riddle and nonsense to the Wife their being more ancient than Iupiter and the Moon So says Ovid Ante Jovem Genitum Terras habuisse feruntur Arcades Lunâ Gens prior illa fuit But the service it might have done them as to this arrogant brag will by no means countervail that dammage which it does to the person who raises the Doubt For it involves him in the guilt of unhappy temerity towards the Holy Writings Yet the Theorist does not only start this Scruple but argues for it thus Her presence seems to have been less needful when there were no long Winter-nights nor the great Pool of the Sea to move or govern Too bold an affront to Scripture That says expresly That GOD made TWO great Lights and both upon the Fourth Day Gen. 1. 16. The Theorist suspects he made but One. And truly let him but allow Two to be made and the Moon of necessity must be come into our Neighbourhood because she alone could be a Great light in the neighbouring Heaven to make up the Sun Two There is no bringing any Star into the Number For though the smallest of them be a truer and greater Light than the Moon yet no one of them was ever a great Light in this lower World and GOD created more than Two such Besides Scripture says That when GOD made two great Lights he set them both of them both of them then on the same day in the Firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth And must not both of them then be in our neighbourhood at that time And lastly It says That as GOD made the greater of these Lights to rule the Day so he made the lesser to rule the Night And when did the lesser begin to rule the Night Why just when the greater began to rule the Day For as to the Dates of those their respective Offices we find no difference Yet the Theorist declares That the presence of the Moon and consequently her rule then was not so needful because there were no long Winter-nights Whereas the Moon was no more made to shine only in long Winter-nights than the Sun was to shine only in long Summer-days And which is more as there were no long Winter-nights then so there were no short Summer ones neither So that set but the one against the other and the presence of the Moon may seem to have been as needful then in regard of the length of Nights as it is now Upon the whole matter therefore there are no good grounds for this piece of Scepticism And to what has been said concerning it we need add but this Whereas it is argued that there might be no Moon upon the account that there were no long Winter-nights nor great Pool of the Sea to move or govern we being assured that there was a Moon may much better invert the reason and retorting the force of the Argument conclude that there must be long Winter-nights and the great Pool of the Sea because that Planet was present to rule the one and also to move or govern the other Though Possibly the shutting her out of our neighbourhood might be warily done and with prospect of her malignant influence in the case before us namely That she might not incommode or hinder the rearing of the Earth upon the Waters of the Chaos For truly had she been so near a Neighbour at first as she is now she might have been an injurious one as to that Affair She might have kept those Waters in such Motions as would have dissipated their Oily Covering
on the Third Day even before there was a Sun Which as it proves that GOD's special Hand was in the Work and might serve as a Bridle to curb People in their forwardness to idolize the Sun while it is made plain to them that he did not as a DEITY give Being to these thing by any plastick influence of his they existing before himself so it argues withal that the Earth was then grown into a competent Solidity Yea the same Moses goes on and tells the World That by the end of three days more the Earth was made a Dwelling-place for Mankind and in part of it a Paradisiacal one too And this farther bespeaks it to have arrived at such a Temperament as it could never have done so soon in case it had been formed as is above supposed For besides that the Theory allows it to have become dry by degrees after it had done growing it declares That the Body or new Concretion of it was encreased daily being fed and supplied both from above and below pag. 59. At which rate Six Days might easily pass and Six times Six after them and the Earth not be fitted for Habitation 4. And though the Sun was not made as yet the Fourth Day being the first of his existence yet this does not invalidate Moses's Narrative in the least by rendring it absurd or inconsistent with it self when it tells us that the Earth was brought to such maturity on the Third Day For though there was no Sun then yet we are assured there was Light And Providence might so order this Light as to have it supply the place of the Sun in measuring out Time and making Days though not so distinctly as he does And that there should be Light before there was a perfect Sun seems highly agreeable to the Explication of Light by the Cartesian Principles For according to them Light consists in pressione materiae coelestis in a pressure of the celestial matter or in conatu ejus ad motum in its tendency or nitency to motion And therefore if our Vortex or Heaven made up of this Matter were by the first Mover put into such a Circumgyration at the beginning as it now has by virtue of this Gyration the subtile Matter would have been impregnated with a strong conatus or propensity to recede from the Centre of the Vortex according to the Laws of Motion well known in that case And so a faint Light would have been cast through the Vortex at least through the Ecliptick parts thereof though there had been no Sun in the middle of the same And so while the Matter for the Body of the Sun had been in preparing that is grinding off from the particles of the Matter of the Second Element which being made to turn upon their own Axes by mutual collision and incessant attrition rounded one another into Spherical Figures and gathering towards the middle Point of the Vortex and setling there a feeble kind of Light must have shat from those Central parts of the Vortex till the Sun thus a making could have been finisht Which is it might have been in the space of three Days by a great quantity of the purest Matter retiring into the heart of the Vortex which still grew bigger as the Particles of the Second Element had their angulosities worn off and so grew less then on the fourth Day the Sun might shine out in his full strength While by a new Protrusion and brisker Propulsion of the Globular Matter he put a stronger conatus into it than it had before And if there could thus have been Light antecedently to the Sun then how there should be Days and Nights at the same time is easie to conceive admitting the Diurnal Motion of the Earth This I have said not that I belive the Sun was thus produced any more than the Great Philosopher did but to make it appear that the holy Text might be literally true and that to hold there were Days before there was a Sun is so far from being vulgar and ridiculous as some would make it that it is greatly consonant to that which is counted the best Philosophy The Noble Des Cartes so justly admired speaks the same sense though in different words And which peradventure will seem a Paradox to many all these things the Properties of Light would be just thus with the celestial Matter though there were no manner of force in the Sun or in any Star about which it is wheeled So that if the Body of the Sun were nothing else but an empty Space though his Light indeed might not be so strong yet in other respects we should see it no otherwise than now we do at least where the Matter of the Heaven circulates As many as are not pleased with this have liberty to imagine that by the three first anticipative Days more early than the Sun was only meant such certain spaces of time as were commensurate or equivalent to three Days though they were not divided into Diurnal Periods nor otherwise distinguish't than by those Acts of Creation which GOD exerted or the several Creatures which he formed upon each of them So about the Pole where the Sun is in the Horison by Months together and then out of it as long Men may reckon the time by Days though they have them not without any Solecism in their way of compute But not to dwell upon this Point they who believe and consider that there was once an universal darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over all the Earth for the space of three Hours a long time after the Sun was made may I think be persuaded to believe also that by some means or other there might be three real and distinct Days in the World before he was created 5. But that the whole Creation and consequently the whole Earth was consummated in six days may he proved by one very good Argument the Fourth Precept in the most sacred Decalogue Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy GOD. In it thou shalt do no manner of work thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man-servant and thy maid-servant thy cattel and the stranger that is within thy gates For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day Wherefore the LORD blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Now the Seventh day which by divine Benediction and special Consecration was set apart for the Iewish Sabbath was no other than a Natural Day consisting of Twenty four Hours And the six Days in which God allowed Men to work were of the same quality or duration But then he permitting labour six Days in the Week because in six Days he made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and enjoyning a cessation from all manner of work and
a Sanctification of the Seventh Day because on it he rested from his work of Creation from hence it will follow by undeniable consequence that the seventh Day on which GOD rested and the six Days on which he wrought must be of the same nature that the Iewish Sabbath and Week-days were of and that in Six such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Days consisting of Twenty four Hours apiece the Heaven the Earth the Sea and all that in them is were made And indeed unless the HOLY GHOST had said expresly that they were Natural Days each of them made up of Twenty four Hours he could hardly have spoken them to be such more plainly and properly than he has done For he tells us seven times over in the First of Genesis that is concerning every one of the seven Days That they had Evening and Morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereas if he had made use of the single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that might have been taken for time indefinitely or at large But as if he designed to prevent this or at least to give no occasion for it as often as he mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was still pleased to tack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it to evidence that he meant no other than a Natural Day to which Evening and Morning do belong And that which makes it farther evident that he has tied up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Day to signifie a Natural Day in the Story of the Creation is That this Fourth Commandment is partly entred in that Story and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seventh Day which he blessed and sanctified for the Sabbath is said to be the seventh Day on which he rested from his works And so both were Natural Days alike the one as much as the other And therefore the Seventh Day separated for a Sabbath and kept so by the Iews from the Promulgation of the Law to the Dissolution of their Polity yea to this very Hour in their Dispersion being a true Natural Day the Seventh Day whereon GOD rested from his works must be the same And truly once to pretend that there is any thing of Cloudiness or Ambiguity in the recited Precept or that GOD by the Days mentioned therein did not mean ordinary Natural Days would be to raise a mist to darken the Truth to offer to tye a knot where there really is none and to put plain words by their common sense meerly to force a difficulty into them Suppose a Man should command his Servants or Children to work six Days because he himself in six Days had done such and such things and to rest on the seventh Day because on that Day he ceased from his labours Could it ever enter into the thoughts of any but that the Days in which he wrought and they are to work and the Day in which he rested and they are to rest must be of the same nature Why such is the case here if we put but the Great GOD into the place of that Man and allow his Precept to be of a plain import and signification as we have reason to do For this Great God was now publishing a Law to his People A Law whereby they were to live or die for ever A Law by which he really intended and heartily desired that they should not die but live to Eternity And He being in hand with a Law of such consequence to their pretious Souls who can question but it was worded plainly For without doubt he would deliver it in such familiar terms as might be most intelligible to the meanest Capacities amongst that People to whom he recommended it as a standing Rule So that the Fourth Commandment being a piece of that Rule a Branch of that Law we cannot suppose it to be cloathed with obscurity either in the substance or reason of it And truly if so plain a Paragraph as that be not to be taken in its Grammatical sense 't is impossible we should know the Mind of Scripture and vain it will be to pretend to understand any Period in it But then if where God speaks plainly in his Word we must understand it Literally surely we must do it most of all in that part of his Word which is the Body of his Law and so the specifick Rule of our Practice And if the Moral Law in general was of a Literal Signification then so was the Fourth Word of it to the Iews And if that were Literally to be interpreted as undoubtedly it was the World must be created in the time there specified in just Six Days that is neither more nor fewer And Moses methinks seems to be mightily concern'd to ground Men in this For though he had noted already in the First of Genesis that the work of Creation was compleated in Six Days and had fairly accounted for each of them in particular yet reviewing things in the Second Chapter he there inculcates the same afresh that so they might take farther notice of it Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them That is in the Days and according to the order before remembred But had the Earth been formed after the tenor of this new Hypothesis it could never have been finisht in Six Days and brought into a condition sit to entertain its Host Creatures in that compass of time Unless at the rate of the Mahometan Miracle we should yield that the Showers of Earthly Particles were hardened by instantaneous induration For so it is storied of a certain Dervich or monkish Musselman that strowing Sand upon the Waves as fast as he sprinkled it it turn'd to a Causey before him whereon he might walk to a Mosque the usual place of his Devotions Though far more agreeable to this Hypothsis as it makes the Formation of the Earth so slow is the Phantasie of the Chineses inhabiting Formosa and other Islands Who hold that the World when first created was without form or shape but by Pankun one of their Demi-gods the Sixty Second of their Seventy Two Deities was brought to its full perfection in Four Years 6. The only considerable way of eluding this Doctrine of the Worlds being made in Six Days is the introducing of Cabbalism into the Story of the Creation For by That Numbers which show the order of time are made Types or Emblems or secret Notes of the Natures of things But the force of the Holy Argument alleged is not to be shifted off by this means The Iews without question had a Cabbala amongst them and upon this Cabbala they set an exceeding high value For they put it in the Scales as some Christians now a-days do Tradition even against the written Word it self So that known saying witnesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words of the Cabbala and the words of the Law are alike Which how well soever it might agree with that true and ancient Cabbala which they had from Moses
land and Seas it follows It was so When GOD said Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. it follows and the Earth brought forth Grass c. When GOD said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly it follows the Waters brought forth abundantly When God said Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his king and Cattel c. it follows And GOD made the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel c. And when the Divine and Omnipotent Fiat did all-along carry such energy with it as thus to produce other things as in the series of the Story can it in reason be thought to do less when GOD pronounced LET THERE BE LIGHTS To make this one Fiat differ in sense from the rest would be to depart from the Rules of a just Exposition Yet unless we force such a difference into it it must signify more than the bare appearance of lights upon the clearing up of the Chaos and the Sky that is it must signify those lights were just then created And this is farther evident thus in that GOD takes notice express notice of the use of these Luminaries and therein particularly provides for the conspicuity and Radiancy of them Let them be FOR lights in the firmament of the Heaven to GIVE LIGHT VPON THE EARTH So that when he said LET THERE BE LIGHTS if he did not mean more than their becoming conspicâ—ous and shining out upon the Earth the two expressions must be perfectly tautological And yet if he intended any thing else what could it be but their Creation at that time Especially when it follows hereupon And GOD made two great lights and the Stars also And therefore that the work of Creation which Moses treats of reaches farther than what belongs to the Earthly World and resulted from the Chaos is not to be doubted For he does not only mention the making of the Lights in the Firmament things as different from the terrestrial World as they are distant from the same but describes them as fully in reation to their uses and ends and so seems to handle them as profesâ—edly as any piece of the lower Creation whatever In case it be objected that the Stars give little light upon the Earth which is a thing Moses ascribes to the Luminaries in Heaven I answer If they served not so eminently to that use yet to the other he mentions they were very serviceable and indispensibly necessary For how could time have been measured out and divided into Years and Months as it was in the First World without their help especially if there were no Moon And so I demand in the Second place What does Moses mean by the Host of the Heavens being finished Thus THE HEAVENS were FINISHED and all the HOST of them If he meant only the Host of the Heavens belonging to the Earth what was the Host of those Heavens As for the Air it helped to constitute them to make the very Heavens themselves As for Clouds Rain Hail Snow and the like Meteors there could be none says the Theory As for the Moon it might not then be in the Earth's Neighbourhood As for that watry exhalation which abounded in the aereal Heaven it was but one single thing and so answers not the import of the Word HOST it being of a plural signification And what other Host should belong to these Heavens except the Fowls but then though in Scripture they be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Septuagint and in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fowls of Heaven yet I do not remember that they are any where called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the HOST of Heaven That phrase in Holy Writ does usually I think continually referr either to the Angels or else to the Lights of Heaven And of the latter of those at least it must here be understood But then none of these Luminaries being formed out of the Chaos and all of them but one placed in remote or superiour Heavens hence it is evident that the Story of the Creation is not to be restrained to the Terrestrial World For that Moses did not only speak of them but of their being created then is manifest from the words before us The HEAVENS and the EARTH were FINISHED and all the HOST of THEM where if by the Earth and its Host being FINISHED We are to understand their being CREATED at that time as we certainly must then are we bound to understand that the Heavens and their Host were so too because the same thing is equally predicated of both It may be worth the while also to remark that Passage in the 148. Psalm Where the inspired Man desiring that GOD might be glorified by means of the Celestial Luminaries crys out Praise ye him sun and moon praise him all ye stars For he commanded and they were created Whence it is evident that when GOD commanded Let there be lights this was not a command whereby they appeared only but whereby they were created and the Moon with the rest was then commanded into being I might also make a Third demand What is meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breath of life which GOD breathed into Man No less than his very Soul So says Buxtorf and others the Hebrews by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand the rational and immortal Soul and therefore they swear by it And when GOD created man did he not create this Soul of his And so did not the work of Creation which Moses writes of comprehend more than those parts of Nature which were made of the Earthly Chaos It may be not will Platonists say at least this instance is no good Proof of it For GOD might not create the Souls of Adam and Eve just then but send them down from a state of Preexistence But then not to ingage in a new Controversie I reply in short If the humane Souls came into their Bodies out of a state of Preexistence then when they descended they were either pure from sin or they were not If they were not pure then how did GOD create Man in his own Image Gen. 1. 27. Or how did he make Adam uâ—right Eccles. 7. 29. Where the Rectitude spoken of must be of a moral nature because as the Context shows it is opposed to moral obliquity or perverseness If they were pure how could the infinitely gracious BEING whose name and so his nature is MERCIFUL who delighteth in mercy and whose mercy is over all his works deal so unkindly with his own most dear and spotless creatures as to thrust them down or suffer them to fall out of a state of Aethereal light and happiness into a state of darkness and stupid silence out of which according to Platonism they must come to be incarnate and so slide into a condition more forlorn still Truly if the goodness and wisdom of Heaven so decreed
and ordered things as that the Protoplast's and so their Childern's innocent and immaculate Spirits must be betrayed or precipitated into that state of inactivity which might last for millions of years of ages and then out of that squalid condition sink into a worse into one full of inexpressible imperfections miseries and dangers where innumerable multitudes lie under almost an inevitable necessity of falling into the torments of everlasting destruction if this I say be the result of Havens wise Councils and Decrees Preexistence will give no satisfaction to understanding Men and do as little honour to the Glorious GOD. It will rather be a Scandal than a Key to Providence Now that the Souls of the first Pair of Mankind did preexist it being improbable and that they should be ex traduce it being impossible what remains but that GOD created the Souls when he made the Bodies of those Persons And so the work of Creation of which Moses treats is so far from being limitable to the lower World or indeed to the higher material one either that it stretches out it self beyond them both even to the Spiritual one And the Host of the Heavens just now done with intimates as much Expositors conclude while they make it refer not only to the Lights but the Angels above And perhaps something of this Truth That Angels and Humane Souls came into being at the same time that the Earth did may be wrapt up in the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg. So Orpheus that anciâ—nt and famous Divine amongst the Heathens who according to At henagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is believed to Theologize more truly than the rest tells how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a superimmense Egg being brought forth by Hercules that is I think by the Divine Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by attrition it brake into two parts of the upper part of which was made Heaven and of the lower part the Earth And then affirms that Heaven being mingled with Earth it produced both Women Men and Gods By which he might shadow out that the Intellectual or Spiritual World took its beginning with the Terrestrial one But if he meant that Souls or Spirits sprung up out of matter this will make the ancient Philosophy so very mean and gross as not to be at all regarded CHAP. V. 1. The Form of the Earth Excepted against from the want of Rivers 2. Notwithstanding the way devised to raise them there would have been none in due time 3. Whereupon Two great Inconveniences must have ensued 4. No Rivers could have been before the Flood 1. THE chief thing for Life is Water said the Son of Sirach It is necessary and useful upon numberless accounts So that that Hypothesis which implies the Earth was without â—â—rings and Rivers for many hundreds of Years maâ— justly be rejected And for this reason the supposed Form of the Earth cannot be maintained For according to that the Element of Water was fast shut up within the Exteriour Orb of the Earth and how could it issue forth from thence through so thick and solid a terrestrial Concretion For that being made after the manner abovesaid there could be no gaping chasms nor indeed little clefts or chinks in it whereat the imprison'd Waters might get out Or if there had been never such plenty of lesser cracks or larger rists in it yet the Water being settled in that place which was proper to its Nature there it would have staid by the innate Law or Principle of its Gravity Unless by Elastie Power Protrusion Rarefaction or the like it were forced thence there it would have made its perpetual aboad had the Earth been never so open oâ— pervious by reason of fissures or holes in the same 2. But therefore Exhalation is here made use of and as a proper Engin is set to do this mighty work of fetching up Rivers from the inaccessible Pit The operation in short was performed thus The heat of the Sun raising plenty of Vapours chiefly about the middle parts of the Earth out of the subterraneous Deep they finding most liberty and easiest progress toward North and South directed their motion towards the Poles of the Earth Where being condensed by the cold of those Regions into Rain they descended in constant and exuberant distillations And these Distillations were the Fountains that supplied the first World with Rivers running continually from the Polar to the 〈◊〉 parts of the Earth But according to this Hydrography I shall endeavour first to make it out that there could be no Rivers in due time and secondly that there could be none at all And as for Springs the Hypothesis does not pretend to any First It would have kept Rivers too long out of being For according to that Philosophy we have now to do with the new made Earth was composed of nothing but Dust and an Oily liquor And it being of such a Composition and of a vast thickness it must needs be a considerable time before the Sun could penetrate into the Abyis under it and draw up vapours from thence if it could do it at all in so copious a manner Secondly The Air being at first quite empty of Vapours it would take a great quantity of them to make the Atmosphere of the Earth or to fill up that To which add that every part of the Earth about its Aequator being turned from the Sun every four and twenty hours as long as it was obverted to it many of those Vapours which were lifted up by day would fall down again by night in the same Latitude where they arose without being dispersed to the Polar Regions And thus the production of Rivers would have been something retarded again Thirdly The surface of the Earth being endued with a wonderful feracity it must immediately put forth in an inconceiveable plenty of all sorts of Vegetables which from luxuriant pullulations would strangely advance by most speedy and prodigious growths And this Superfetation of the virginal Soil proceeding from that extraordinary fruitfulness wherewith it was originally impregnated must farther hinder the early rise of Rivers Not so much by consuming the matter of them as another way For the Earth being thick beset with the flourishing apparatus or goodly Furniture of its own bringing forth such perhaps for abundance and excellency as never crowned the most fertil Country or fruitful season since though Dews or Rains fell without intermission yet the Waters would have stuck or hung so much amongst the rank and matted tufts of Grass Herbs Shrubs c. as not to have been able in a short space of time to have gotten into Streams and constituted Rivers of such a length as they must have been of Fourthly In case these Waters had met with no checks but had fallen immediately into such Bodies as would have forced their passage along in holding Currents yet then they must â—ave digged their own Chanels too being sure to find none till they made them But
have hindred the same Waters from running back into it Not the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth for if they were there in such plenty as 't is confest there is room enough for them as to have been able to have made a much greater Flood than Noah's yet then against their nature they must have risen above their Source and being so risen they must have stood so long as the Flood lasted in a miraculous opposition to their own nature inclining them to retire from whence they came Not the Supercelestial Waters for then the breaking up of the Fountains of the great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven must be one and the same thing Whereas by Moses they are very plainly and carefully distinguisht Not the inclosed Abyss for then besides that the whole Hypothesis so improbable must be allowed the forty days Rain would have been utterly needless Because then the falling of the Earth into the Abyss being the breaking up of the Fountains of the great Deep it must have fallen in the very first day that Noah went into the Ark because on that very day all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up Gen. 7. 11. And if by the Earth's falling into the Abyss the World were drowned the first day that Noah entered the Ark as of necessity it must have been if the Earth were dissolved and fell that day to what purpose should it after that rain for forty days together And whereas it is said Gen. 8. 2. That the Fountains of the Deep were stopped the Earth broken down into the Abyss was never made up again nor the Abyss it self covered but remains still as open as ever To which Particular Heads let me add but one more which has a kind of general Relation to them all If either the open Sea or the Waters within the Earth or the Waters above the Heavens or the Abyss under the Earth had been the great Deep meant by Mosâ—s none of them had any true or proper Fountains in them And so what will become of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Fountains of the great Deep But now supposing that the Caverns in the Mountains were this great Deep how surprizingly do all these things fall in with them For First They are called great Deeps by the HOLY GHOST as has been noted Psal. 78. Secondly They were capable of being cleaved or broke open as being fast shut up Thirdly They were able to afford a competent quantity of Water even as much as it was necessary they should yield Fourthly The Water that came forth of them could never return into them more Fifthly The breaking them up must be quite another thing than opening the Windows of Heaven Sixthly They might all be broke up the same day that Noah took into the Ark. Seventhly The Rain which fell in the forty days would still have been as needful as ever Eighthly They were stopped again as strictly and literally as they were broken up Lastly They were as true and distinct Fountains as any in the World So that if they were not the real Fountains of the Mosaic Tehom Rabbah one would think they might well have been so 5. But let us now pass as it is time we should to a Second Ground upon which we build the probability of our Hypothesis above specified namely That the Flood was but fifteen Cubits higher than the highest parts of the surface of the Earth And that Ground is this Supposing that to have been the true height of the Flood it will not only be possible but very easie to find Water enough for it without recourse to such Inventions as have been and justly may be disgustful not only to nice and squeamish but to the best and soundest Philosophic Judgments For thus in the First place we need not call in the Theory's assistance an Hypothesis how ingenious soever in the contrivance and contexture of it guilty of unjustifiable absurdities Nor Secondly need we fly to a New Creation of Water to gain a sufficient quantity of it An Expedient that sounds harshly in the Ears of many And that not only because they are of Opinion that GOD finisht the work of Creation in the first six days But because he has expresly declared That the true and only Causes of the Deluge were these Two The breaking up of all the Fountains of the great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven To which may be added That the Creation of so vast a quantity of Water as should have surmounted the highest Hills would certainly have inferred either an enlargement of the whole Universe to receive it and so a Dislocation and consequently a disorder of its parts respectively or else a Penetration of the Dimensions of Bodies while so much new matter should have sprung into being more than ever existed and yet have been confined to the same space of aboad that was before fill'd up in its whole capacity Nor need we Thirdly to fetch Waters from the Supercelestial Regions Where if the Heavens be Fluid how could they have kept from falling down so long And if they be Solid how could they possibly have descended at last For in their descent they must have bored their way through several Orbs as hard as Crystal and how thick we know not Besides these Waters must have been lodg'd either below the Stars or above them If below them they would have hid them from our sight The Sun himself cannot be seen through a watry Cloud how much less the Stars through a watry Ocean Nor will it help to say the Element of Water above is more fine and transparent than the Waters below For were it as thin as an ordinary Mist still it would hide the Sun's Face from us though it might transmit his light In case they were plac'd above the Stars they must have been delug'd before the Earth could have been so as intercepting them in their fall Nor could they have slid off the Stars again dropping down to the Earth unless that were the Center of the Universe which is hard to prove yea most absurd to think Nor will it be necessary in the Fourth place to suppose the Mass of Air or greatest part of it was changed into Water to make the Deluge A change which some will by no means admit of as being not hitherto proved by Experiment Yet I cannot but own that the best Philosophers have thought it fecible and also believed it to be actually done The Egyptians conceived Manethus and Hecataeus both attest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Rains were made by the version of Air. Plato was of the same Opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Air being thickned and condensed made Clouds and Mists And so was Philo. For besides that he affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it varies and runs through all manner of mutations He says expresly in another Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That Air being
on and consummated in Six Days the thing I was to prove So that if the Theorist's conceit toâ—ching the Earths Formation be true Moses's Account of the Creation must be false And the History he wrote of it as the unerring Pen-man of the HOLY GHOST instead of being of unsuspected Credit and Authority we may justly call as Celsus did of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old Womans Fable 9. It is manifest also that Moses in that sacred Story did not make use of meer Numbers but of Time yea of time divided into know and common Periods namely into Days And those Days which is especially to be noted are expressed as was said before and must always be remembred by Evenings and Mornings just as the Hebrews speak Natural Days And therefore not to allow the First Second and Third Day c. there mentioned to be such vesperomatutina Natural Days having Evenings and Mornings But to turn them into pure Numbers One Two Three c. is highly unwarrantable as being a double injury to Scripture upon no necessary account For it is a depriving it of its direct and genuine sense and a forcing it upon another quite beyond and beside that only to gratifie the humour of Cabbalists Which humour or phantasie of theirs many times is vain and triviâ—l and grounded upon nothing perhaps but ignorance or mistake To evince as much let me give in one Instance of this nature most pertinent to the matter we have in hand Philo that mighty Man among the Iews for allegorizing the Story of the Creation and to whom later Cabbalists are greatly beholden positively and aloud pronounceth thus It is a silly thing to think that the World was made in Six Days or in any certain time And why so His reason in short is Because it was made before there was a Sun and so there could be neither Time nor Days But there might be Days before there was a Sun as we have shewed and so where 's the strength of that Objection In like manner when it is said In the BEGINNING GOD created the Heavens and the Earth he will not allow that BEGINNING should signifie time for a like reason Because time was not before the World but was made either with or after it Strangely argued for so Learned a Man As if the World could not have been made in the beginning of time because time was made with it Whereas if it had not been made with it if it had not began just then the World could not have been made in the beginning of it indeed Nor does he back this reason at a better rate where he adds For seeing that time is a space of motion of the Heavens motion cannot be before the thing moved Yet let us but suppose that the World was made and the Heavens put into motion at once and then the World would be created when time began as being created together with that motion in which consists the nature or measure of it And yet he concludes for himself as if he had argued most cogently But if so be BEGINNING be not taken now according to time 't is fit it should be taken according to number And so in part we have an account how Numeral Cabbalism crept into the Divine Text of Moses Even because Men had not Philosophy enough to make out how time and days might be before the Sun But is not natural Philosophy then an useful thing and of great use according to its Character in the First Chapter 10. Were Enquiry made how the Church of CHRIST hath resented Cabbalism or what respect she hath shown to such as used it and Answer might partly be shaped out thereunto from her Carriage towards Origen That Father had a Peculiar Talent above others at Allegorizing Scripture and in delivering Doctrines of the Cabbalistic strain But how did Holy Church receive his Notions of that stamp and how did she deal with him for their sakes This we may learn from Photius who tells us That the Fifth Universal Synod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned Origen and anathematiz'd him And for what cause Why for that he attempted to introduce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greek Mythology or Pagan Fables into the Church of GOD. And particularly for that piece of Dotage it is the Patriarch's word in teaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that humane Souls were preexistent to their Bodies And as all know preexistence was a principal Branch of the Cabbala 11. And truly the Cabbala which makes Numbers emblematize the Natures of things may well be rejected For indeed it proclaims its own vannity in one notable Instance I mean in the Coincidence of its Numbers as to their symbolical significancy In the whole Story of the Creation there are but Seven Numbers made use of Now if GOD or Moses had designed these Numbers for a Mysterious use we need not question but care would have been taken that Two of them should not be Symbols of the same thing when One would have served every whit as well For so one of the Two Numbers would be superfluous Yet supposing that there is such a Cabbala as some contend for in the Story of the Creation there must be this vanity or superfluity in it For then the Number Five and the Number Six in their Mystical Property must refer to one and the same thing viz. the Animal Nature How the Senary is an Emblem of that both by its Nature and its Names we have seen already And truly the Quinary is made a â—ymbol of the same and that both those ways First by its Nature It consists of the Masculine Number Three and of the Feminine Number Two and so it mystically signifies Male and Female Five also drawn into Five brings about Five again Five times â—ive is Twenty five so it betokens Generation And Male and Female and Generation by them we know relate directly to Animals And then for Names it has Cytherea and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are Names of the Senary and so it must be of the same mystick signification with that still Nor can it be pretended to diversiâ—ie the mystick significancy of the Numbers that the Quinary refers to Water Animals only For not only Fishes were made on the Fifth Day but Fowls too and that out of the ground every one of them Gen. 2. 19. And as no Fowls live altogether in the Water so very few kinds of them live upon it in comparison of those that do not In all respects therefore the Quinary seems to be a meer supernumerary It signifies nothing but what the Senary could have signified as well Whence we may conclude That either Moses was guilty of a notorious bungling Oversight in inserting an useless number into the Cabbala which in so rare a Philosopher as he was must not be admitted especially he being divinely inspired and studiously contriving so profound and admirable a piece of Mystery as the Cabbala is
Chaos which came from we know not whence in the room of an Earth of a Planetary Origin sunk down from its lucid or Sidereous state takes away the supposed causes of this notable effect it will be incumbent on him to assign others from whence it may be derived In case it be objected that the Phaenomâ—non alledged is not satisfactorily accounted for in the Cartesian way neither forasmuch as it stumbles in the formation of the Striate Particles the main instrument of the work and that Des-Cartes himself dares not trust his own Hypothesis but professes the Earth to have been otherwise produced than that determines as shall be noted by and by then I answer As this is really nothing to us so it will not excuse the Theorist in the least from clearing up the thing according to those measures he hath taken by himself It only shows that the French Philosophy of so great fame is too short to fathom the deeps of Nature and by no means quick-sighted enough to see to the bottom of her profound Mysteries Though that Philosophy may grow up apace to so happy a perfection as to be able to make a more full discovery of such secrets must needs be the desire of wife and good Men. And so we return to the Enquiry we were upon viz. How Fire should come to the Center of the Earth Which is a Problem the more intricate and perplexed in regard The Theory takes no notice of the beginning of the Chaos It tells indeed that there was a Chaos and what kind of one it was but it gives no manner of account how it came into Being As to that the Reader is left at a loss and has nothing to guide him but his own Conjectures I shall guess therefore as fairly at the thing as I can And to me it seems probable that this Chaos should be produced one of these Two ways either by Creation or by Des-Cartes his way for generating Planets Thought it will not be over easie to make out That it came into existence by either of them 3. For first to affirm that it dropt directly out of the hand of Omnipotence in way of Creation is more than we find warranted Yea we are taught something and that from Heaven which is very different from it Namely That in the beginning GOD created the EARTH And if it was and Earth that he created in the beginning it could not be a Chaos I mean Such a Chaos as the Theory makes it for that was no Earth nor had it any specific or distinct Earth in it as being without distinction of Elements It is said indeed Gen. 1. 2. That the Earth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolation and emptiness Inanis vacua as the Vulgar doubly void That is of its designed order and comeliness which were to beautifie it and of all those creatures which were to furnish it and dwell in it And therefore says the Targum of Ierusalem it was empty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Children of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and void of every brute And the Prophet describing a most fearful destruction to come upon his People by Wars through which their fruitful Land was to become a Wilderness and Men and Birds were to be driven away tells us in the very Words of Moses That the Earth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolation and emptiness And in this sense I confess the Earth in its original imperfection and nakedness was a Chaos an incultivate and uninhabited lump rude and confused beyond all imagination as having neither good from nor furniture in it But then at the same time it was an Earth too and so not such a Chaos as the Theory speaks it I might also note would that be of weight that the Praefix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Genesis 1. 1. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notificationis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scientific or demonstrative and so it points at this Earth and intimates it was this very same Earth at first that it is now The same as to substance and nature though not as to condition and ornaments And this Earth in the state of its primitive disorder and destitution being the true Mosaic Chaos created in the beginning we have no grounds to belive that any other besides it was ever brought forth in way of creation But we have good grounds to believe that no other was so produced inasmuch as to assert it would be to set up Phantasie against Moses's authority and to bring presumptuous conceiâ— into competition with Scripture But grant the Chaos to have been such as it is supposed to be and that it entred into the World at the door of Creation Yet here will be nothing to make it reasonable very reasonable to admit Fire at its Center For if there was a central Fire in it it must either be placed there supernaturally by the immediate power of the ALMIGHTY and we have no reason to admit it upon that score because we are no where informed of it Or else it must be generated there in a Natural way and to admit that would be against reason too For how could a vast quantity of Flame be bred in the Bowels of an Earthy Mass consisting of the Principles of all terrestrial Bodies And whoever shall peruse the first half of the Fifth Chapter of the English Theory will soon be satisfied that the Chaos could consist of no other but terrestrial Principles For there it appears that it was resolved into nothing but Earth Air Water and an unctious substance and so could be made up of nothing else But Fire is quite another thing and as different from those Elements as motion is from rest or the most Celestial from the most Terrestrial Matter and so in a course of Nature could not possibly issue from them and settle it self in the midst of them 4. We will pass therefore to the Second Conjecture whither indeed the Notion of central Fire in the Earth does most directly lead us and that is Des-Cartes's Method by which he supposeth Planets to be formed And according to that the Earth was one of those fourteen or fifteen Stars which once shined gloriously in their respective Heavens hereabouts But being all overgrown and incrusted with Maculaes except one and losing their native strength and light were swallowed up by the Vortex of the surviving Luminary the Sun and so move round about him as so many Satellites or Waiters of his to this day Though some of these Planets also that is Secundary ones are at the same time carried about others of them As the Moon about the Earth the four Medicean ones about Iupiter and Saturn's three Asseclae or Pages according to Cassinus about him And here there may seem to be a plausible account given of the declared Central constitution of the Earth or of a Region of Fire at the heart of it For it having been all Flame
the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he created and make it do service upon their authority For some of them bear us in hand that it denotes Creation in a rigorous sense that is the making of a thing out of nothing Agreeable to which is the holy Writer's notion of Creation where he says that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear Meaning as we read elsewhere that they were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing Which apply to the making of the Earth as we very well may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the SPIRIT 's word concerning it and it could not possibly be made out of a Sun or Star as the new philosophy would have it For then say those Doctors a more proper word should have express'd its production viz 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports the making of a thing out of praeexistent matter Some slight ground for this seems to be laid in Scripture and that in Moses's Cosmopoeia too For it is said Gen. 2. 3. That GOD rested from all his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he Created to make Where unless we allow a distinct signification to the two words implying that he made some things out of nothing and others out of prepared matter we must charge the HOLY GHOST with indecent Tautology Though if we consider again that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used promiscuously to express GOD's making of things ex praejacente materia out of extant matter as well as out of nothing and that in the very story of the Creation we may well suspect that there was too much niceness in the Masters rather than such respective significations to be strictly and continually appropriated to the words Only as many as did thus criticize have thereby fairly given their suffrage for that truth which we contend for That when GOD created the Earth according to Moses's narrative he educ'd it directly out of nothing And so it cannot have a fire at the Center of it because it issu'd forth into being in Des-Cartes's way 8. Being unawares fallen upon that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he created to make in reverence to the Seventy I cannot but take one short step out of the way to vindicate their translation of it They render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he began to make As if the work of Creation had not then been consummate But that could not be their meaning For whereas we read in the beginning of the Chapter the Heavens and the Earth and all the Host of them were finished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were compleated They could only mean therefore that GOD rested from all his work which at any time in the six precedent days He had BEGVN to make And so their sense is sound and true though they keep not close to the â—â—teral strictness of the Original And that they thought the Creation was wholly perfected before the seventh day is apparent from that liberty they took in translating the beginning of the second verse of the same Chapter which perhaps is more culpable For whereas the Hebrew says GOD had ended his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the seventh day departing quite from the proper signification of the word they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the sixth day As if they feared they should offend by stretching the work of Creation too far in case they had turned it GOD had ended his work on the seventh day Here was more than abundans cautela too much caution used Especially if Aben Ezra's Maxime be authentic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The finishing of a work or consummation of it is not the work it self I have noted this the rather as containing in it a full consent with what has been said touching the Creation's being perfected in Six days For it makes it evident that the LXX Interpreters were throughly perswaded of this Truth And not only so but forward to assert and resolved to maintain it even to an over acted care and blameable Scrupulosity 9. And here it will not be amiss to reflect a little upon one notion of the Theory 's which countenances the late production of the Earth or its rising long after the World was made perhaps out of a Sun or Star as the Scheme in the English Theory before the Title Page plainly insinuates And that is The limiting of Moses's Story of the Creation to this lower World to the Earth that is to say and the Aereal Heavens and such things as were formed out of the Chaos Thus in one place it confines it First that must be noted that Moses did not describe the first production of matter and the rise of the universal World but the formation of our World that is of our Earth and our Heaven out of their Chaos And presently after But the Subject of Moses's Genesis is the Chaos and that most confus'd and Earthly and the things made out of this Chaos and related to it as a center those properly belong to the Mosaic World And by and by We may not surmise therefore that when we and our World was made entire nature must needs be made at the same time And then again Certain it is that Moses's World does not comprehend all the Regions of the Vniverse nor all the orders of things but those parts of Nature which could be made of the Earthly Chaos But then to say nothing of Light or the Vehicle of it neither of which were made out of the Chaos let me ask What did GOD mean when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LET THERE BE LIGHTS I do not ask what those Lights were that 's evident enough Nor where they were placed for they were far above the Aiery Heaven and so in the sense of the Theory could not belong to the Earthly World But the question is What ALMIGHTY GOD intended by LET THERE BE LIGHTS The Theory hints the meaning and effect thereof to be no more than that those heavenly parts of the Universe were then first made conspicuous or began to illighten the Earth and declares it demonstrable That Moses is so to be understood as he has limited him But then I must continue the enquiry What does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LET THERE BE signify in other places of the same Chapter where it occurrs so often why it infallibly implys the production of those things to which it does respectively relate It imports God's commanding or willing their existence and their immediate emergency into being in obedience to his powerful Will or Mandate This is obvious even to slightest notice Thus when GOD said Let there be light it follows immediately and there was Light When GOD said Let there be a firmament it follows and GOD made a Firmament When GOD said Let the waters be gathered together into one place that so there might be dry
by a paralled Text in Iob He hath compassed the waters with bounds chap. 26. ver 10. Take it in the Original and it speaks out Solomon's meaning to the full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terminum ciâ—cinavit super faciem aquarum With a pair of Compasses he set a boundary upon the face of the Waters Not upon the face of the Deep so it might have been catcht at and construed an Arch upon the inclosed Abyss but upon the face of the Waters And this Compass was extant in that state of Nature where were Thunders and Waters in thick Clouds as the Context shews neither of which Phaenomena's could be contemporary with that Arch or Orb which the Theory contends for And then it was to last until day and night come to an end So that if Solomon's meaning be the same with Iob's the Compass he mentions as set upon the face of the Deep must be standing still And so it cannot be that Arch which the Theory would perswade it was because that was down long before Iob's or Solomon's time And yet that these two great Men both Kings as some think did intend the same thing the Theory acknowledgeth And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does here signifie a Boundary may well be inferred from what follows in the next Verse when he gave to the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his decree which the Targum renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his boundary Or if the Phrases used by Solomon and Iob sute not so exactly with the Waters as encompassed with Earthly bounds yet they are very applicable to them as they are encompassed with the firmament of Heaven For that is set as a Sphere or Orb as an Arch or Circle upon the face of the Deep and shall continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the consumption of light with darâ—ness according to the Holy Man's expression And this the old Chaldee Translation falls in with while it says GOD set the firmament upon the Waters And so does Eugubinus who affirms That the place in Iob is to be understood de orbe Coelesti of an heavenly orb as the Theory has noted to our hand though that he did it parùm philosophicè we have little reason to believe when we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orb or Circle the Sphere or Compass of Heaven Job 22. 14. And then by GOD's strengthening the fountains of the Deep is meant his making the Earth so compact and solid as that the Springs and Rivers derived from the Sea should not ordinarily wash it down and so obstruct and dam up themselves But how on the other side an Arch built over the Mosaical Abyss should any way strengthen the Fountains of that when not so much as one Spring or River or fountain in specie did ever flow out of it during its inclosure is not so easie to apprehend 4. Such are the Scripture-Proofs of the aforesaid Form of the Antediluvian Earth To take them off I might oppose them by many other Texts I mean such as are charged with counter-Metaphors with such Allegorical or allusive terms as carry a sense in them not only different from what is suggested in the forementioned Allegations but inconsistent with it and repugnant to it I will instance but in one Who shaketh the Earth out of her place and the Pillars thereof tremble Job 9. 6. So that the Earth which is one while said to be founded upon the Seas and established upon the Floods and another while to be stretched over empty places and hanged upon nothing and anon according to the Theory to be a Sphere or Circle or an independent Orb or Arch is said at last to be built upon Pillars Whence it is manifest that the Citations above are but Tropical or Figurative Schemes of speech and so wide and indeterminate that nothing of strict and particular signification or certainty is to be lookt for in them or concluded from them To do that though I will not say it is to trifle with Scripture is to make it speak what it never meant It is said of GOD in the cited Text That he shaketh the earth out of her place Which had it been hit upon and that way applied would have been as notable an evidence for the Earth's changing her situation in the time of the Flood by some terrible concussion happening to her in her Dissolution as any the Theory has brought to other purposes And yet we read in the Psalms that GOD founded the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon its basis that it should not be removed for ever Though at the same time we are told again The earth is dissolved Psal. 75. 3. quite down as it were and all in ruines which might have been a Proof of its Dissolution at the Deluge even then when it was impossible also that it should be so because GOD upheld it for it follows immediately I bear up the Pillars of it Most plain Demonstration how little of Argument as to the matter in hand can be drawn from such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tropological forms of speech as these which frequently occur in the sacred Volume especially in the Poetic Books thereof 5. Had learned Tycho but minded this and rightly considered how the HOLY GHOST does all-a-long deliver himself in Figurative Expressions touching the Earth he needed not to have scrupled the Coperniâ—an System of the World and falling off from the old Pythagoriâ— Hypothesis have erected a new one of his own more intricate and less tenable in tenderness to the Sacred Writings For Gassendus gives that in as one of Brahe's Objections against Copernicus's way and as one reason for his inventing and setting up his own quod Sacris adversetur Literis aliquoties ipsius Terrae stabilitatem confirmantibus CHAP. VIII 1. A continual Aequinox before the Flood by virtue of the Earth's Position improbable 2. For then that Position would have remained still or the Change thereof would have been more fully upon Record 3. Scripture does not favour this Aequinox but rather discountenance it 4. It would have kept one half of the Earth unpeopled 5. And have hindred the Rains at the time of the Flood 6. The Doctrine of the Aequinox is against the Judgment of the Learned 7. The Authorities alledged for the Right Situation of the Earth upon which the Aequinox depends Insufficient to prove it 8. Two Queries propounded relating to the Aequinox 1. WE are now from its form come to the First Property of the Antediluvian Earth namely a Perpetual Aequinox by reason of its right situation to the Sun By which is meant that the Axis of the Earth was always kept in a Parallelism to that of the Ecliptic as now it is to that of the Aequator So that in her Annual motion about the Sun she was carried directly under the Aequinoctial without any manner of Obliquity in her site or declination towards either of the Tropics in her Course
request of his what more gracious or satisfactory answer could be returned than in the words recited Where GOD condescends to give him assurance of what he desired by ingaging That while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and night and day shall not cease Where Summer and Winter are mentioned as things well known to the Patriarch and he makes no enquiry into the meaning of them as having been familiarly acquainted with them Secondly GOD here promiseth to Noah in behalf of Mankind That there should be Day and Night as well as Summer and Winter yet Day and Night were certainly before the Flood and if the promise of their continuance does not hinder but they were before so it argues not but that Summer and Winter were so too Yea since Summer and Winter are here settled upon the new or recovering World in conjunction with Day and Night which had their alternate beings ever since the Creation it is a good evidence that these Seasons had the same And the reason why both were now ensured is because both were intermitted the Rule of Day and Night having been broken for a while by continual darkness as well as the Regularity of the Seasons for that fatal Year by the prevailing Waters To which add Thirdly That the Lights in the Firmament of Heaven at the same time that they were appointed to divide the day from the night were moreover appointed for the Seasons of the Year for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies And therefore those Birds that come in the Spring and go away in the Autumn and are in one place in the Summer and in another in the Winter are said to know their appointed times or the Seasons of the Year Ier. 8. 7. and the Prophet expresseth them by the same word that Moses did But Fourthly There is annother thing wherein Scripture checks with this Aequinox and that is the effect of the Divine Malediction denounced against the Earth Upon Man's rebellious defection or Apostasie from GOD he cursed the Ground for his sake Gen. 3. 17. Whereupon it became naturally barren of good things necessary to Life and fruitful in useless and offensive Products But in case there were such an Aequinox it will be hard to conceive how this should be for that Aequinox would have kept the Heavens in a standing unvaried posture and the stability and unchanged influence of the Heavens would have continued the Air in the same benign Temperature And the Air being still and warm and balmy that rich and fat Earth would have been flourishing and fruitful pleasant and Paradisiacal as the Theory supposes it a long time after Adam fell So that where could be barrenness Or how did the Curse of GOD take place To say the Earth grew dry and barren at last for some ages before the Flood would be no answer or at least no satisfactory one For besides that the heavy Curse was presently to fall as a Punishment upon Adam so late a barrenness would have been the effect of time and nature the unctuous juices of the primigenial Soil which made it a great while so vital and vegetative being at length exhausted And therefore this barrenness could not be imputed to the Curse of GOD because it would certainly have come on in the meer course of things though Man had persisted in his original purity and had kept the Crown of integrity always upon his head Lastly There is a Passage in the Holy Writings which seems to evince That the Air in Paradise had an Intemperature sent into it perhaps the fruit of the Curse now mentioned about the time that our First Parents sinned And this again implys That there was no such Aequinox The Passage relates to our first Parents and occurs Gen. 3. 7. Where it is said of them That they â—ewed fig-leaves together or fitted them together as the Syriac reads it and made themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things to gird about them Now why did they do this It is commonly said That they might cover their nakedness whereof they were ashamed But this seems not to have been the reason at least not the whole reason of the thing For first Scripture says nothing of it expresly That does not declare that they did thus to hide their shame Secondly What shame need there have been upon account of nakedness betwixt Husband and Wife when there were no other People in the World Thirdly While they stood it was said of them That they were both naked the man and his wife and were not ashamed Gen. 2. ult And surely when they were innocent they should have been most modest and their modesty should have made them most ashamed of their nakedness then had there been shame in it And therefore it is probable that the Perizomata things to put about them were made upon another score namely To defend them from the intemperate Air of the Edenical Regions And this was as much as they at present could do for themselves But then afterwards which helps to confirm our sense we find that the LORD GOD made them coats of skins and cloathed them Gen. 3. 21. Which were to be a better defence still against the aforesaid Inconvenience So Lyra concludes That they were cloathed with Skins because they wanted a covering against the Intemperature of the Air. I confess he speaks of the Air in that place ad quem erant ejiciendi into which they were to be cast forth But let it be so still it will fight as much against this Aequinox and imply or infer what certainly overthrows it that is an Air intemperate in the habitable Regions of the first Earth And by the way let none wonder That GOD by his Angels should stoop to so mean a work as the cloathing of Adam and Eve with Skins Let us but seriously think what disparaging things our REDEEMER JESUS the King of Glory has done and suffered in his adorable Person for us forlorn and most unworthy sinners and we shall cease to marvel at this lesser condescension of the INFINITE MAJESTY though it was exceeding great Yet had it not been more upon the account of warmth than covering their nakedness such Coats need not have been made them their own Fig-leaves would have been sufficient for that use And thus Scripture does plainly discountenance this Aequinox rather than favour it in the least measure 4. But farther yet If the Earth always wheeled about the Sun in a Right Situation to him the Terrestrial Globe in one Hemisphere of it must have been unpeopled because there could have been no easie Passage no way of possible access to it For grant Adam to have been planted on either side of the Torrid Zone how should he or his have gone through it to the other It would have been so terribly heated by the roasting Sun that no Mortal could have travelled over it Consider but the breadth of this Zone
disruption of the Abyss as if the fall of the Earth had caused such extraordinary commotions in the Air or convulsions of its Regions as made them every where to pour down Waters For the Theory will have the Rains to be antecedent to the disruption I do not suppose the Abyss broken open till after the forty days rain But then this is most directly against Scripture again for that plainly affirms the contrary that the Fountains of the great Deep and the Windows of Heaven were both opened upon one day Gen. 7. 11. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened So that in the same year of Noah's Life and in the same Month of that Year and on the same Day of that Month the Fountains below and the Windows above were both set open that the Waters issuing out of both might raise the Deluge 6. Let me add in the next place That it is a known Question that has been moved by Writers of all sorts Ancient and Modern Iewish and Christian Divines Historians Chronologers c. at what time of the year the Flood came in Iosephus for instance will have it to happen in Autumn others in the Spring and they give their reasons for it The Question does manifestly proceed upon inadvertency their not minding that when it was Spring in one part of the World it was Autumn in another And the like Question is put by Writers and bandied among them touching the Creation at what time of the year that great Work was done But somewhat more improperly there being no Seasons of the year before the Creation Now this being the general Judgment of the Learned That the year had Tempestival Changes from the beginning even the same that it has now as these Questions import from hence it may be inferted that they never dreamt of this Position of the Earth or a Perpetual Aequinox but were all of the contrary perswasion or common Opinion 7. As for the Authorities that are made use of to establish the Doctrine we are upon if they be examined they will hardly be found to speak home in the case For though in the Contents of the Tenth Chapter of the Second Book of the Latin Theory it be thus declared the last Article concerning the right Situation of the first Earth is establisht by the sentences of Philosophers yet if their Sentences alledged in that Chapter be well considered they will appear to be too weak and insufficient I shall set them all down fully to avoid suspicion of perverting or misrepresenting them The first is taken out of Plutarch and delivered by him as the joint Opinion of two ancient Philosophers Diogenes and Anaxagoras think that after the World was constituted and living creatures were brought forth out of th◠Earth the World in a manner was inclined towards its Southern part of its own accord And that this perchance was done by providence that some parts of the World might be inhabited and others not by reason of cold heat and convenient temperature But this will do the Theory little service it rather fights against it For the Inclination here is said to be made by Providence that some of the Worlds parts might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitable by reason of a good temperature Which agrees not with the Theory for that holds the World to have been of the best temperature before the Earth was inclined insomuch that it knew no Season but Spring And what then could mend its habitableness Yet in order to that the Earth was inclined as the Citation intimates And when in the Judgment of these Philosophers the inclination of the Earth was to conduce to or improve its habitableness and according to the Tenor of the Theory it would rather have been an hindrance or disadvantage to the same it is apparent that this Allegation does rather cross than confirm the Hypothesis In case it be argued That this Inclination might promote or mend the habitableness of the Earth as it quenched the flame in the Torrid Zone and reduced its intolerable to a gentle hea◠neither thus can the Passage be drawn to favour the Theory For say the Philosophers by vertue of this Inclination some parts of the Earth were to be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uninhabitable and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too upon the account of vehement heat Whereas this very Inclination was of necessity to be a qualification or corrective or indeed a perfect extinction of all furious burning in the Torrid Zone as the Theory owns So that the Authority cited is so far from establishing the Theory's Hypothesis of the Earth's Inclination that it will not be easily reconciled to it Nor can it excuse the matter with this Pair of Philosophers to say that they were blinded here with the common Error and ran for company with those that believed there was a Torrid Zone when there really was none For allowing they were so sagacious as to discover this Secret of the Earth's Inclination we must also grant that by the same quick-sightedness they would clearly have discerned that the effect thereof could not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a scorching raging insufferable heat about the middle of the Earth but a certain mitigation or quenching of the same The second Sentence is that of Empedocles which occurs in the same Chapter of Plutarch Empedocles teacheth That the Air giving way to the force of the Sun the North inclined the Northern parts being elevated and the Southern ones depressed and this happened by that means to the whole World Here is a mighty effect produced without a cause assigned at least here is non causa pro causa the assignation of a cause altogether incompetent and not to be understood For why should the Air yield to the force of the Sun more towards the South than towards the North when his force was equal upon both the Regions at once For he moving at all times exactly in the midst betwixt them his influence must be exactly alike upon each and therefore that it should cause the depression of one more than of the other is a thing in the dark and unintelligible But say the Sun had had power to displace the Earth and by sinking one Pole of it through such a cession of the Air to have raised the other yet then that this cession should not be in the Air nor consequently this dislocation of the Earth till the Flood happened is not to be thought And therefore this Sentence favours not the Theory neither for that has positively determined the time of the Deluge to have been the juncture of the Earth's declension or dislocation Whereas if the Sun had been the cause thereof by working a change in the Air conducive thereunto it must have been accomplisht
loss they would have been at for Pâ—ey how could they have seen to direct their Motions having no manner of Light at any time to guide them So that upon occasion they must have râ—n at tilt upon one another and being inclosed between two Earths would have been in danger of stranding themselves both above and below Secondly It would have been a place as close as it was dark And therefore what shift should they have made for Air I think I may say for Breath For as for Whales and other Fishes that have Lungs Pliny says It is fully resolved by all Writers that they breathe And his Opinion it is That all Water-creatures do the same after their manner In proof of which he offers several Arguments not to be despised As their Panting Yawning Hearing Smelling c. To which add their Dying upon being frozen up for any time Or if they be alive their greedy flying to any little hole made in the Ice whereat the Air enters But in the Abyss they could have had neither Air nor Breath and so for lack of the same must all have been smothered Lastly It would have been a place as Cold as it was dark and close For the same Cover of Earth of unknown thickness that would have hindred Light and Air from piercing into the Abyss must have kept out the Suns cherishing and benign Warmth too So that could they have struggled with and overcome the two first Inconveniences yet here they would have met with a Third insuperable Could they have lived without Light and Breath yet they could not have multiplied without the Influence of Heaven The want of that would have chil'd and quench'd the desires of Procreation in them and rendered them impotent that way Thus Winter we see is no season for Production of Fishes as being destitute of that quickning power and encouragement which the Presence of the Sun affords 4. Farther yet That there were Seas in the Beginning even on the Third Day we are taught Gen. 1. 10. GOD called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And why should they not be such Seas as we have now For we have no more grounds to think or say That the Waters there mentioned were an invisible potential or proleptic Sea than we have to imagine or affirm that the dry Land there spoken of was an invisible potential or proleptic Earth And that there were open Seas then may be argued from the Waters we read of under the firmament Gen. 1. 6 7. And GOD said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And GOD made the firmament and divided THE WATERS WHICH WERE VNDER THE FIRMAMENT from the waters which were above the Firmament But had there been none but River-waters in the first World and not such an open and huge Collection of Waters as we now see the Firmament could not so properly have been said to divide the waters from the waters For then it must rather have been in the midst betwixt the Earth and the Waters and so must have divided the Earth from the Waters the Earth which was under the Firmament from the Waters above it For as for the River-waters they would have been too inconsiderable to have had the Partition made by the Firmament predicated of them in exclusion of the Earth or in preference to it It would have been as if the KING should have said Let a Wall be built betwixt the Thames and the Conduits of London to part them without taking any notice at all of the City which is infinitely more remarkable than the Conduits are But therefore the Theory presents us with a new Notion of the Firmament and makes it to be quite another thing than what it has always been said to be namely That Cortex or Outward Region of Earth spread and founded upon the Abyss And so the Waters of the Abyss under that Earth must be the Waters under the Firmament I cite but two Paragraphs to this purpose Any one at the first view might be able to guess that this exterior frame which GOD establisht upon the Abyss is to be understood by that Firmament which GOD is said to have establisht between the Waters below and above Gen. 1. 6. 7. And again As to the Firmament between the waters it was a remarkable Phaenomenon of the first Earth or rather the first habitable Orb it self which every way encompassed and shut up the Abyss and so divided the Waters above from those below But this truly is so far from giving any satisfaction that it will rather bring the whole Hypothesis to confusion I mean while thus it runs against Scripture again and that most directly and shamefully For the Firmamentum interaqueum Firmament that divided the Waters was so far from being a Frame or an Orb of Earth or the first habitable Earth that as the DIVINEST SPIRIT tells us it was that wherein the Fowls were to fly which yet were to fly above the Earth Gen. 1. 20. Yea in that very Verse it is said to be the Firmament of Heaven And by GOD himself is stiled Heaven GOD called the Firmament Heaven ver 8. Even that very Firmament which divided the Waters as we learn from the two foregoing Verses And therefore the waters under the Firmament in the seventh Verse are said in the ninth Verse to be the waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Heavens I confess the Theorist twits us for understanding by the Firmament what we commonly do calling it an Vnphilosophic thing But I forbear to retort It is enough to shew that the advantage lies so much on our side and that the ingenious Philosopher is so utterly lost in his Notion And since to make the Earth before the Flood to be this Firmament is so impossible as being manifestly repugnant to the Truth of GOD what remains but that it should be that diaphanous Expansum stretched out betwixt us and the Clouds which as it is constituted of Air chiefly so it is the place wherein Fowls do fly according as Providence was pleased to appoint And to seal up this for a certain truth it is known that the Hebrews have no other word whereby to express Air but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven or Firmament Only whereas this Aereous Expansion extends from hence to the cloudy Regions where are the Wates above the Firmament and therefore are called Waters above the Heavens we must note that there is another Firmament mention'd by Moses I mean that Expanse of indefinite vastness wherein the Celestial Lights are fixed for as we read Gen. 1. 17. GOD set them in the Firmament of Heaven But then this Aereous space we speak of being the true Firmament this proves there were open Seas at first Else as was said before this Firmament must have divided the Waters from the Earth whose
of Romanceing their Pens run on at a strange rate rangeing as far as quaint Phancy can carry them But as to them let thus much only be noted That whereas the Theorist applys what they write of the Golden Age to the Paradisiacal State before the Flood as if what they say were some dark and imperfect Memoires of that it might be disputed were it worth the while whether they set not that Age just after the Flood making Noah to be Saturn and the principal Characters of the Golden Age to fall in with such things as happen'd in that Period Several of no contemptible learning have been of that Opinion and Bochart for one As many as are dispos'd to read what he wrote of this nature may find it in the first and second Chapters of his Phaleg And if what Poets have delivered of the Golden Age refers to times and things of a Postdiluvian Date we have no manner of reason to regard them in the least as giving any light either into the Doctrine or State of Paradise Nor truly are Fathers those infinitely more excellent and solid Men to be too much relied on in this case neither I mean no farther than they are consonant to the Oracles of Heaven and write fairly after that inspired Copy which came down from thence For though they be free from light and Poetic Figments they are full of Allegories and high Rhetorications and too Hyperbolical erroneous some of them to be followed in all things Thus when Ephrem Syrus Moses Bar Cephas Bede Strabus Rabanus Maurus and others place Paradise near the Circle or Orb of the Moon and St. Basil makes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a place above the whole Creation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscur'd with no darkness by reason of height and the Hebrew Masters in general will have it made before the World how can these things be tolerably reconciled to a Terrestrial Paradise And while some again supposing the Ocean to incircle the Earth place Paradise on the other Hemisphere and then to bring Men into this after Adam's Fall will have the Ocean to be fordable and People of that talness as to wade through it on foot who can believe Paradise had such a Situation Especially if we add that other Doctors yet of whom Bar Cephas speaks upon account of the Site of Paradise beyond the Ocean held this Continent of ours was quite unpeopled and a kind of Desart till the Flood And which still intangles things more and more they generally concluded that the four Rivers of Paradise were Tigris Euphrates Ganges and Nilus and that having their Spring-heads on the other side of the Sea by a strange penetration or trajection struck through the Earth and brake out on this side of the same To follow the Fathers here can neither be safe nor easie And better it would have been if the Theorist had not gone so far after them but instead of that had kept to his word We will never assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients which is not first proved by Reason or warranted by Scripture And therefore while Poets pursue the Golden Age in golden Dreams and set it off in fine and extravagant strains and the Fathers expatiate in too large and lofty Encomiums of Paradise describing such rare and unaccountable Excellencies and Phaenomena's of it as it never had but in their mistaken Idea's and Allusions let us wisely attend to the Voice of GOD's SPIRIT in his unerring Word So we shall learn what is fit and necessary concerning Paradise and by keeping within the bounds of sober truth shall never be cumbered with superfluous knowledge nor be put to the trouble first of inventing humorous Notions and then of defending them 3. Now as to the Doctrine of Paradise it is fully comprized so far as we need to consider it in the following Periods of Scripture It will not be amiss to bestow a short Paraphrase on them Gen. 2. 8. And the LORD GOD planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed 8. No sooner had GOD the LORD of all brought Man into being but in special respect and kindness to him he assigned him his Dwelling in the sweetest Country of the whole Earth In a place so ordered by the great care and wise contrivance of his Providence that it abounded with delights and for its exceeding pleasantness was as the Garden of the World situate in that Tract of Ground which is called Eden and lies Eastward from hence Ver. 9. And out of the ground made the LORD GOD to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil 9. And this Garden was most rarely furnisht For besides Floriferous and Fruit-bearing Plants the products of which respectively were grateful to the Eye and gustful to the palate and useful for nourishment there were two very extraordinary Trees One the tree of life So called because its Fruit if eaten would make a Man live very long upon Earth and that without sickness pain or decay or at least was a Symbol of Eternal Life to be injoyed by him in a better State upon condition of unsinning Obedience in this The other was the tree of knowledge of good and evil Called by that name because GOD had ordained that if Adam tasted its Fruit he should presently know what Evil was by a quick and sad sense of it and the better know what Good was by the lamentable loss of it Both these Trees grew within the Garden Ver. 10. And a River went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads 10. And to the end that this Garden thus flourishing and fruitful might so continue a River was made to spring up in it or to flow through it Which how far soever it might run in one single Stream and then divide into two or three at last it fell into four branches or chanels Which before they terminated or disburthen'd themselves as four several heads were known by four distinct names after they had passed the Garden in one Current Ver. 11. The name of the first is Pison that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah where is gold Ver. 11. As for the first of these Heads for its fruitfulness in Fish or the abundance of its Waters it is called Pison and by them that dwell near it Phasis or Pasitigris Which dividing it self from Tigris whereof this is the most Southern branch about Apamia runs along by the Land of Havilah and parting that Land from the Country of Susiana it directs its course towards Teredon and thereabouts empties it self into the Persian Gulph Ver. 12. And the gold of that land is good there is Bdellium and the Onyx-stone 12. Of which Land of Havilah whither Saul chased the