BRIEF REMARKS UPON Mr. WHISTON'S New Theory of the Earth And upon an Other Gentleman's Objections Against some Passages in a Discourse of The Existence and Providence of God Relating to the Copernican Hypothesis By Iohn Edwards B. D. LONDON Printed for I. Robinson at the Golden Lion and I. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1697. To my Worthy and Honoured Friend Dr. IOHN WOODWARD Professor of Physick in Gresham College and F. R. S. SIR THE forming of these brief Remarks upon Mr. Whiston's Theory of the Earth was occasion'd by one of your Letters which you were pleas'd to honour me with for your mentioning that Vndertaking of his and your cursory Glance upon it revived in me the thoughts which I a little before had of making some Reflections on that Attempt And the Motive to it was this my apprehension that this Learned Gentleman had not dealt fairly with the Mosaick History which as I conceive is a fault of a very high nature I chiefly argue with him about his abandoning the literal Sense or the genuine meaning of the Mosaick Creation But I hope this may excite a Resolution in you to go further and particularly to rifle his several Hypotheses which I question not you are perswaded are founded on a precarious bottom In defence of your self you will be obliged to say something to him for you are a Theorist as well as he and the Earth is your common Subject But to the Theoretick part you have added Experience and Observation whereby you have cultivated this Theme to a Prodigy and are going on still to oblige the World with greater and nobler Discoveries the Consummation of which we all with great impatience expect and long for As to this little Essay of mine the Bookseller had notice of it and in this Idle Time this Stationers Vacation was pleased to call for it to set the Press on work I was not wholly averse to the making it Publick because I knew there is this one thing to commend it viz. the Goodness of my Design which is to conciliate a Reverence to the Mosaick Writings and particularly that part of them where the First Formation of all things is treated of In the first Chapter of Genesis Moses presents us with the Primitive State of the World and acquaints us what are the First Principles and Rudiments of all things viz. the Chaos and Light All Terrestrial gross and dark bodies were framed out of the first and all Etherial bright and tenuious bodies were educed out of the second Whatever belongs to this Earth and the Planets which are of a resembling nature had its original from the former and the Ether Sun and Stars which appertain to the Superior part of the World had their rise from the latter These are the General Sources these are the Primitive Materials of all visible beings in the World the one passive dull and inert the other active subtile and brisk On these two Principles viz. the Chaotick Matter and Light or Fire there might be built a solid System of Natural Philosophy every way congruous to these and the other Discoveries of the Divinely Inspired Philosopher in this Chapter The contrary is that which I make bold to censure and animadvert upon in the insuing Papers wherein I have shew'd that Mr. Whiston makes his Philosophick Principles jarre with Reveal'd Truth and suffers his Mathematicks to confront the Bible As to the Second Part of my Reflections wherein I doubt concerning the Earths moving about its Axis it may be I differ from you and from the generality of Vertuoso's at this day But truly I am not so much a Tychonian as to for swear the Copernican Hypothesis but the Truth of the matter is this when I was treating of the most Substantial Points of Divinity that is when I was asserting and vindicating the Being and Providence of God I was unwilling to found these or any thing belonging to them upon an infirm and unstable basis upon a dubious and disputable Doctrine and which had not long prevail'd in the Learned World Such I take the Opinion of the Circumgyration of the Earth to be and therefore till I could be absolutely satisfied about the reality of it I thought it was safest to aquiesce at present in the other Doctrine and the rather because it is suitable to the Mundane System which Moses presents us with whose Literal sense of the Account of it is not to be slighted by Christian Philosophers According to this Inspired Sage the Grand Parts and Divisions of the Material World were ranged and disposed according to the Specifick Gravity of them though the Laws of Gravity or any other supposed Mechanism were not every where observ'd in the Creation nor any where exactly it being below the Divine Soveraign Being to confine himsef to such Laws our Earth and the Planetary Bodies which are of the same matter with it as to the main have the lowest place because they are heaviest the Waters which are Ponderous in the next degree to the Earth are accordingly situated next above the superficies of it the Atmosphere of the Air conformably to the degree of its weight is above the Waters and the Ethereal Luminous and Firy bodies as being lightest of all have the uppermost place This is the Order and Method of the Creation according to Moses's account of it but it is inconsistent with the Copernican Circumvolation of the Earth and his System of the Heavens If it be said that this Terrestrial Globe is a despicable Spot a Speak a Point in comparison of the Vast and Spatious Congeries of the Sun and Fixed Lights I grant it is so if it be meant of their Bulk and Quantity but then this must be remembred that though the Earth be inferiour to the Solar body and the Stars on the account of Magnitude yet it is far superiour to them upon other Accounts which are of mighty weight and moment all which I have particularly mention'd and insisted upon in the Second Chapter of that Discourse wherein I undertook to prove the Existence and Providence of an Eternal Infinite and All-Wise Being from the Fabrick and Sructure of the World If any person will be pleased to answer those Arguments and satisfie me about them I faithfully promise him I will be his Proselite and I will declare that I am not enclin'd any longer to think that the Place of our Residence is not a Voluble Planet I have lived to see Monsieur Des Cartes's Philosophy introduced into the Publick Schools with great applause and at last exploded and this may be the fate of the Copernican Hypothesis though it hath been embraced some considerable time by the Greatest Philosophick Wits who have now rendred it a Modish Opinion Yet there may be a Time when its Fashionableness shall expire and when this Seat and Habitation of Mankind shall return to its Rest again But why do I thus trespass Truly Sir I must partly impute it to
you for seeing you are wont to indulge me a great Freedom when I have the felicity to Communicate with you I have made use of that Liberty now and thereby am become Tedious For which I beg your pardon and request nothing more passionately than that you would vouchsafe me the honour of letting me be Esteem'd what I so sincerely am SIR Your most Affectionate faithful and humble Servant JOHN EDWARDS Cambr June 16. 1697. OF THE Mosaick Doctrine OF THE CREATION BEING Some brief Remarks on Mr. Whiston's New Theory of the Earth In Vindication of the Mosaick Account of the Creation I Have in another place endeavour'd to prove and I hope to the Satisfaction of the Learned and Judicious that Moses's Narration of the Creation of the World is Literal and Historical and that it is a true and just Account of the whole Process of that Divine Work And this I undertook to make good in opposition to the fond Notions which had possess'd some men's heads and had been divulg'd by their Pens viz. that Moses is not to be understood according to the Letter that he speaks to the capacity of the Blockish Brick-makers that were newly come out of Egypt and scarcely understood Common Sense and therefore any Story of a Cock and a Bull would serve them When Moses speaks of the Creation we are not to understand him as if he intended to give any True and Real Account of that matter we must not think that he would trouble the brains if you can suppose they had any of a company of Dull Slaves with Natural Philosophy And when he speaks of the formation of Adam and Eve and several things appertaining to it we must not be so silly as to fancy a Literal meaning of the words but we must take it all in a Mystical and Allegorical Sense Thus the known Theorist dictates to the world Where by the way observe how weak and shallow such suggestions are as if the first Chapters of Genesis were to be read only by the people of that Age in which Moses lived as if none but Drudges and Slaves were to look into these Writings or as if these were so ignorant and stupid that they could not understand a plain and downright Narrative or as if these thick skinn'd Labourers who were not capable of Natural Philosophy could judg of Allegories as if those who could not understand any thing of the plain History of the Creation were able to comprehend Mysteries Parables Hieroglyphicks Mythologies in short as if an Allegorical and Mystical Sense were easier than a Literal one These things duly weigh'd are sufficient to shew the Vanity of that Writer's Discourse Notwithstanding this another and a New Theorist hath lately so far imbibed his Notions as to shew little regard to the letter of Moses's Writings which I take to be a very false Step and a dangerous one in a person especially that is no Profess'd Deist and by his Character seems to own the Authority of the Scriptures It is very strange and ominous that such a one should give so little deference to Revelation and assert things which palpably interfere with the Sacred and Infallible Records of Moses His Grand Proposition is this that the Mosaick Creation extends no further than the Earth or as he expresses it at other times Nothing but the Earth only is the subject of the Mosaick Creation This every where occurs in his Treatise so that there is no need of assigning any particular page as I shall do afterwards when I cite any other passages out of his Book But who is there that hears this Proposition named and is not enclin'd to think that this Learned Theorist design'd to expose the Sacred History of Moses and to erect a doctrine that absolutely runs counter to the first words of the Bible In the beginning God created the heaven and Earth Here is a dichotomy of the Whole Visible World into heaven and Earth and therefore we cannot but infer thence that the Heavenly Bodies are a portion of that System which Moses here describes These words are an Epitomy and Abstract of the Creation more particularly and distinctly delineated afterwards in that chapter and consequently the Mosaick Creation extends to the Heavens as well as to the Earth But what saith the New Theorist to this Why he grants that in the foremention'd Text the Heaven signifies the Heavenly Bodies viz. the Sun Moon and Stars but he denies that it is to be so understood elsewhere and particularly in any part of this first chapter of Genesis for according to him heaven here is no more than the Atmosphere of the Earth or the Region of the Air p. 11. Which is a very precarious and groundless Interpretation for though it is true the region of the Air that surrounds the Earth is call'd heaven and the firmament of heaven in this chapter as well as in other places of the Sacred Volume yet we are to know that both these words heaven and firmament are used here in a Different Sense There is the Lower or Aerial Firmament v. 6 7. and there is the Upper or Etherial one v. 14 15 17. And so heaven is either the Lower Heaven which is no other than the Regions of the Air or the Atmosphere of the Earth of the Vpper Heaven which is the Aether or Region of the Sun and Stars The former of these Heavens was the work of the second day and is distinctly mention'd in v. 8 9. The latter is expresly named in v. 14 15. and was the work of the fourth day The not attending to this distinction of the Two Firmaments or Heavens in this Chapter hath been one occasion of those Mistakes and Misapprehensions which this Ingenious Author and some others of late have fallen under But can there be any thing plainer than this that there was a Double Firmament or Heaven one viz. the Expanse of Air to be between the waters and the waters v. 6. i. e. to be placed between the Seas below and the Clouds above the other viz. the Ethereal Expanse to be the seat and receptacle of the Sun and Stars v. 16 17 God made two great lights he made the stars also and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth How then can it be true that Moses's description of the Creation reaches no further than the Earth Doth not this History make particular mention of that Higher Heaven or Expanse where the Luminaries are doth it not acquaint us what was the design of the Allmighty in making it Doth not Moses in plain words relate that the Fourth Days Work was the creating of the Heavenly Bodies from v. 14. to 20th Doth he not mention the Celestial Lights in general v 14 15. and then particularly the two great lights v. 16. that is the Sun Moon and other Planets for they are all comprehended under these two as being the most Eminent which is no unusual way of speaking in
in his allotting more Time for the creating of that and what belongs to it than all the rest of the World and would thereby convince us that the Earth as small as it is the Noblest and Choicest Part of the World Thirdly They can't be brought to acknowledge that the Heavenly Bodies yea and the Whole World were made for the use of Man and on this account likewise as well as those before mention'd they cast off the Mosaick History of the Creation because it favours not his Opinion of theirs but represents Man as the Lord of all the Creatures and him for whom next to the Divine Being all things were made and more particularly the Heavens round about him Our New Theorist can't indure to hear of this it is a doctrine which he utterly explodes and in order to that depretiates and vilifies Mankind p 89 debasing him to the nature of a File or a Worm in the Works of the Creation So low so ignoble so groveling is he in his thoughts and so injurious to his own kind It is true he would seem to applaud Mankind as a Noble and Glorious Creature p. 90 and he takes notice of the Dignity of Man Book 4. Chap. 1. p. 253 but then we are to remember that it is usual with this Author to clash with himself what he asserts in one Part of his Book he renounces in another as might be evidenc'd in several Instances but that is not my business at present Though 't is highly improbable that there are any other Creatures of humane kind that receive any advantage and profit from the Creation yet he declares that it is not wise and rational it is not worthy to be believ'd of the All-Wise God that he chiefly or solely created the World for our use p. 70. He pronounces it inconsistent with the Divine Wisdom to make thousands of glorious bodies for the sole use of a few fallen and rebellious creatures p. 69. And after he had enlarg'd upon it he concludes that it argues the most extravagant degree of folly p. 71. But softer terms would have become him when he was speaking of so high a matter and I question not but he would have used them if he had Thought before he spoke that is if he had thought and consider'd how Noble a Being Man is and that he was design'd by his Maker to be the Flower and Top of the Creation and the Glory of the Visible World and that he hath the peculiar honour to have his Nature united to the Deity He that hath such apprehensions of Man can't think it strange that even the Sun Moon and other Planets which more nearly environ him and even the Fixed Globes of Light and Fire though at a vast distance from him were created for his Use and Service in some manner or other They were made to shed their Influences on Mankind here on earth which is express'd by their Ruling the day and the night Gen. 1. 16 18. and to give light upon the Earth which also is twice mention'd v. 15 17. Even the vast multitude of Fixed Lights which are meant by the Stars v. 16. or at least are comprehended under the host of heaven Chap. 2. V. 1. were made for this very purpose and consequently for the Service of Man This is confirmed from what we are told concerning those Glorious Creatures the Angels viz. that they are Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for Mankind more especially them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1 14. It is no wonder that the Heavens and all the Glorious Bodies in it are Servants to Men when the very Celestial Inhabitants are so It would have been accounted a wild and extravagant Notion that those Superiour Beings should be Waiters and Tenders on the inferiour ones unless the Infallible Writings had assured us of it but now being assured of this we may be reconciled to that other Truth that the Heavens serve Man and that the Sun and all the Luminaries are Servants to the Earth and officiously roll about it whilst it stands to receive their Influence This is congruous to the Divine Greatness and Majesty who hath made Man his Vice-gerent in this lower world and hath constituted the Earthly Globe the place of his Residence in which respect it is more excellent than all the Heavenly Bodies But I have spoken something of this in an other place and therefore shall add no more now Fourthly and lastly they hold that the Formation of the World was according to the strict laws of the Mechanick or Corpuscular Philosophy and therefore seeing Moses represents it not as such they give no credit to his Writings about this matter It is particularly alledged by our present Author that his New Hypothesis of the Earth is exactly according to the laws of Mechanism and thence he concludes it to be Authentick But the Consequence ought to be denied for this reason because he can never prove that the Creation of the World was comformable every ways to the Mechanism to bodies and the laws of Common Nature We must not think that the Origin of all things was in the same manner with the After-productions Rather we are to conceive that the ordinary way and method which have been observ'd in Nature ever since were not observ'd at the Creation for Common and Second Causes had nothing to do then the Divine Power and Influence peculiarly interposed and the Creation was a work of Infinite and Miraculos Power and Wisdom An Immediate and Extraordinary Hand set things on work at the first erecting of the World ayd consequently no Mechanical Laws can explain it â— know our Author seems to agree to this The change of the Chaos saith he into an habitable world was not a mere result from any necessary laws of Mechanism independently on the divine power but is the proper effect of the influence and interposition of Providence Nay that the Whole Work and Process of the Creation was not from mere Mechanick Laws but from the immediate operation of the All mighty and an Extraordinary and Miraculous Power he asserts in some pages together Book 4. Chap. 1. where he instances in several Particulars of the Creation But so it is this Gentleman hath a faculty of jarring with himself for in other places he disowns all this in three whole pages 36 37 38 he argues about the Mosaick Chaos from the Properties of bodies from the manner of their productions from the law of Gravitation and expresly avers that at the first Creation of the Earth all was done according to the known laws of matter and motion and therein mistakes and misinterprets the Mosaick Creation Besides he would not have complain'd that in the Scheme of the Mosaick Creation bodies alike in nature have an unlike original and again bodies unlike in nature have a like original p. 65 and that the Light appeared before the creation of the Sun from whence it is derived c. he could
Scripture And the Stars also in the same verse i. e. the Fixed Luminaries of Heaven are mention'd in contradistinction to the Other Lights Is it not strange now that notwithstanding this Evidence any man should start up and venture to maintain that Moses in this Chapter speaks only of the formation of the Earth Could it be expected that one who hath so great a share of Reason and Sense should thus talk Is it not prodigiously absurd that by Lights in the firmament of the heaven and Two Great Lights and the Stars also all of them either by day or by night to give light upon the earth we should understand the Earth and no more Another late Writer saw how inconvenient harsh and incongruous it was to do so and therefore though he was pleas'd to exclude the Stars i. e. the Fixed Stars from this Creation yet he grants that not only the Earth but other Planets and the Sun it self were the matter of the Creation in this chapter Indeed as for the Stars this Gentleman makes sure work with them for he dashes the word Stars out of the Text which no Commentator or Critick ever ventur'd to do But then indeed as if he repented of his rash act he refers the word Stars to the verb rule and forces a strange and unheard of sense on the place I wish this Ingenious Writer had not too much gratified the Deists whom he undertook to confute by flying to so precarious and shifting a Gloss on a plain Text of Scripture But our present Author out doth this Gentleman and will have neither Sun nor any other Planets nor Stars to be part of the Creation recorded by Moses although express mention be made in this chapter of the Lights both greater and lesser which were set or placed by God at the Creation in the Higher Firmament and although it be said Gen. 2. 1. thus i. e. as was described in the former chapter the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them Than which we could not have plainer words to express the Universal Frame of the World and every thing whatsoever that belongs to it for the Inspired Historian assures us that not only the heavens and the earth which terms themselves comprehend the whole Mundane Scheme were finish'd in the six days Creation but he adds that all the host of them were finish'd likewise that we might not have any ground of surmising with this Writer that Mojes gives us not an Account in the first chapter of Genesis of the Whole System of the Visible World Yet our Author confidently avers that in the foremention'd place the heavens and the earth signify the Terraqueous Globe alone with its Air or Atmosphere without including the Whole Universe or so much as the Solar System p. 10. To me it seems very wonderful and surprizing that any Man of Learning and lngenuity should so openly and plainly confront the Sacred Writer and misrepresent his Clear Account of the Creation of the World I declare I would not have troubled the Reader with any of these Reflections were it not upon this consideration only that this Theorist apparently shocks the Divine Revelation of the Holy Scriptures and contradicts the plain History of the First Inspired Penman I take it to be a very ill work to deal thus with this part of the Bible for the rest of it may as well be treated after the same manner and then in a short time we may give up this Book to the Deists and their fellows It is not from want of Deference to Mr. Whiston or his Parts and Worth that I thus speak I will be of the first that shall applaud his Ingenious Attempts but that which extorts a Censure from me is this that he hath the boldness to offer to the publick a Theory which is wholly inconsistent with the History of Moses And in this Censure all persons that pay a due reverence to the Scriptures must needs concur with me It is ill in a Person of his Figure especially to undervalue the Holy Text and thereby to conciliate in others who are not so well acquainted with it a disregard of the Sacred Penmen and their Writings This will be the natural result of such Undertakings and I am afraid hath been for if some men were not Deists before their perusal of such Writings these will make them so because they see there is no Respect given to Revealed Truth and there is no care taken to conform their Notions about the Creation of which Moses only can give us an account to the book of Genesis But let us hear what the Worthy Author saith in defence of himself and his Interpretation First he tells us that the Capacities of people could not bear an universal account of the origin of things p. 80. And again The Capacities of the Iews to whom Moses peculiarly wrote were very low and mean and their Improvements very small or rather none at all in Philosophick Matters p. 82. And so p. 83. The rude and illiteratte Iews were newly come from the Egyptian bondage and destitute of the very first Elements of Natural Knowledg and this he gives as a Reason why he asserts that the Narrative which Moses gives of the Creation reaches no further than the Earth Such jejune and childish Arguings can never have any power on Rational Minds who delight not to be entertain'd with fancy but solid Truth But no man can count this Reasoning to be of the latter sort for the Capacities of the people were able to bear a plain Relation of the formation of the Heavenly Bodies no less than of the Terrestrial ones The Jews might as well have understood Moses telling them that the Sun Moon and Stars were created as when he tells them that the Earth was created And accordingly we find that he relates the former of these no less than the latter though this Theorist pretends even against the express words of the History that there is no such thing And who but this Author and his Brother Theorist could have dreamt that there is any need of Improvements in Philosophick matters to understand that the Sun and other Luminaries of heaven were made by God on the 4th day of the Creation And I should here also take notice of a great Mistake viz. that the Book of Genesis was peculiarly wrote to the Iews who came out of Egypt as he speaks in the same place Certainly the design of penning it was more Catholick it was intended for all succeeding Iews to speak of no others at present not only such as were Illiterate and Rude but those of sufficient Knowledg and Understanding and surely these might be of sufficient capacity to bear a plain and short Narration of the making of the Heavens as well as of this Lower World This shews that there is no foundation for the Opinion which this Ingenious Writer hath espoused but I hope will have thoughts of being divorced from by
God would obviate Idolatry by downright Falsifying Can we think that Moses was inspired to Lye that the Heavenly bodies might not be worship'd For so runs the Argumentation of this Gentleman Moses makes the Jews believe in this chapter that God created the Sun and other Luminaries on the fourth day and that they belong to the Earth and a part of this System though there is no such thing but this he feigns as an Antidote against the Adoation of the Host of Heaven One would not have expected such a poor way of Reasoning from a man of Postulata's and Lemmata's Who would think that one so well vers'd in Hypotheses Phaenomena's and Solutions should discourse so weakly But this it is to abandon the Sacred Text and not to adhere to the easy and obvious meaning of the Holy Ghost in these Writings and in this Chapter more particularly It is this that hath betrayed our Learned Theorist to such strange and unaccountable fancies it is this that causes him to defend his Proposition viz. that the six days Creation extended no further than the bare Earth and that the whole System of the Heavenly Bodies is excluded from this History of Moses although in that very History he finds it clearly recorded that the Sun Moon and Stars by which day and night are distinguished are part of the Six days Creation Next I will observe that he is pleased to inform us of a New Calculation of Time in the primitive state of the world days and years were all one Book 2. p. 81. And afterwards Both these Periods are exactly coincident and both are performed in the same space of time And then he thinks good to apply it The Works of Creation were finished in six days that is six years he saith But how will he be able to reconcile this with Gen. I. 5 The evening and the morning were the first day and the same is said of all the other days of the Creation Here an evening and a morning are made the just limits of a day and therefore a day at the Creation of the world was not a Year for there is a greater number of evenings and mornings in the compass of a year And so when we read that six evenings and six mornings were spent in the works of the Creation we may rationally infer thence that these amount not to six Years And this Sagacious Writer would have made this Inference himself if he had not been tempted to the forsaking of the plain intelligible and obvious sense of the words and changing the easy and natural interpretation of Scripture for a forced one Again he thinks fit to symbolize with his Fellow-Theorist and to raise the same Objection against the Mosaick Creation that he did For thus you hear him objecting p. 50 51. The length of the days assigned is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it The Third day hath two quite different nay incompatible Works assign'd it And the Earth with its furniture takes up four entire days when the sun moon and stars are crowded into one single day And the Improbability yea and impossibility of the Works ascribed by Moses to the Sixth day are asserted by him Book 2. p. 89 90 91. These Cavils might perhaps have become some profess'd Lay-Deist but they are unworthy of a person that bears and Ecclesiastical Badg and who is supposed to believe Moses's writing and not to find fault with Inspired History Are we to judg of the Proportion of the Days Works at the Creation Are we to set the Almighty his Task are shallow heads to censure the Operations of the Omnipotent Creator Must they measure every Days proceedings at the first formation of the world by certain Rules and Assignations of their own This is intolerable and no Pagan Philosopher would have acted thus for he could not but know that the Methods of a Divine and Infinite Agent transcend the conceptions of weak and finite minds and that the Supreme Being is not confined to our Proportions but acts as he pleases Natural and Common Productions are not the same with those Primary ones We must not argue from our ordinary Generations to that which was at the beginning of all things There was an other way and method observ'd and it is irrational and senseless to make these a Pattern to them Here was the Immediate hand of God and therefore it is no wonder that the beginning procedure and finishing of these Days Works were of a different nature from those Works that have been since There being an Extraordinary and Miraculous exertment of Divine Power it is as unreasonable as it is Irreligious to find fault with the Distribution of them It is rash folly to expect Mathematical Congruity in every Production and to look for Mechanick Laws in the erecting of the Universe in the System of the Heavens in the Planetary Bodies in the Sun and other Globes of Fire It is incongruous to think that Mechanism was observ'd in the formation of these But of this I will speak more anon Only at present I take notice of the Agreement of the Two Theorists as to the Main though this latter in one place severely chastises the former for the false steps he hath made in his Theory p. 76 77. There is a perfect Union and Friendship between them in the point of enervating the Mosaick History only they do it after a different manner The Old Theorist now we may call him so since this hath dubb'd himself the New one directly and professedly rejects the plain sense of the Mosaick Text whereas this pretends to own it but at the same time miserably wrests and perverts it The one openly declares that what Moses saith is not matter of Fact but the other comes and acknowledges in part that it is an Historical Account but denies that it is suitable to the Reality of things it is a History but False The former plainly and in downright terms owns his dislike of the Literal meaning of that part of Genesis but the latter though he admits of the Literal signification yet craftily and sophistically distorts the sense of the words and puts a force upon them The first uses more freedom and ingenuity telling the world without more ado that the Historical sense is not to be admitted the second pretends to own the Account of the Creation as to the very Letter but baffles it all by uncouth Expositions Thus though the two Theorists take a different Method yet they unite in exposing the Mosaick Writings It is Melancholy Reflection when we consider how men are hereby taught to vilify the Scriptures to dispute the Mosaick Verity to quarrel with the Creation to look upon the several Stages and Processes of it as feigned and because they are not adjusâ—ed to such Measures and Proportions as these persons fancy to vote them to be false and counterfeit What can a well meaning and sober Reader think when he finds our present Author disparaging and
before as to this must be submitted to those that are able to judge of the different Hypotheses Here is submission but it is not regarded here was a modest acknowledgment of the Author's insufficiency to give a just and accurate Account of the Motion of those heavenly bodiesâ— and a Candid and Ingenuous Reader could not but infer that the like was supposed in the Case before us We are not able to determine in a matter where there are so Various Sentiments My design was to represent to the Reader the All-mighty Power and Infinite Wisdom of the Supreme Being in ordering the Course of the Celestial Luminaries and especially of the Solar Globe and this design I thought sufficiently accomplish'd by a General Computation of the Suns Motion and not by descending to Nice Calculations which would rather amuse and distract than give any Satisfaction Next as to what I had offer'd against the Motion of the Earth he objects that I have not dealt fairly with the Copernicans for I have produced their trifling and less weighty Reasons but have conceal'd the strongest If this be so then I must tell him that Kepler and Galilaeo Great Names in Astronomy were Triflers then Lansbergius Varenius Gilbert had no weight in their Arguments then Copernicus himself was a very easy and mean Arguer and defended his Post but slightly I could mention a Learned Writer who is now alive the Worthy Mr. Ray one of whose Arguments for the Copernican hypothesis is the vast disproportion in respect of Magnitude that is between the Earth and the Heavens and the great unlikelyhood that such an infinite number of vast bodies should move about so inconsiderable a spot as the Earth and this is the Chief Argument he propounds And this with others which I produced were made use of and earnestly urged by other Learned Writers of great Note and Repute Now who would have thought that the Modern Copernicans would confess that the Arguments which the First Founders of the Opinion made use of and which the Chiefest Writers produc'd to bring men off from the other perswasion were so Light and Trifling Or if they were Strong Reasons at first how came they now by my exposing them to be weak Or if the Worthy Persons before mention'd thought fit to insist upon them can any man give any reason why I might not propound them as the Topicks made use of for that Cause It will be difficult to return a satisfactory Answer to these Queries No saith this Gentleman for though those foresaid Philosophers found out or retrieved the Earths Circumrotation yet we of late found out the True Reason of it And what is that I pray The true Reason of this Hypothesis is this its suitableness to the laws of Mechanism This is the Great Arcanum which our late Worthies boast they have had the happiness to bless the world with But I desire these two things may be consider'd First this is a Reason which was never insisted upon by Copernicus the first Reviver of this Hypothesis nor so much as mention'd by some of the Greatest Followers and Asserters of his doctrine as I 'm ready to prove out of the Authors themselves if it be denied Those things which I alledg'd and which this Gentleman calls trifling are the Principal Arguments which the generality of Copernicans urge for their Opinion They did not so much as understand the word Mechanism they had never heard of such a term Gassendus who gives a summary account of all the Reasons produced for this Hypothesis reckons up those very ones which I gather'd out of the Authors themselves only he argues indeed from the Motion of the Planets which is uncertain and dubious but he hath not a syllable about the laws of Mechanism Tell me then is it credible that the First Inventers and Establishers of an Hypothesis should not be acquainted with the True Reason why they threw off the receiv'd Opinion and embrac'd another Secondly They that at this day use these Terms know not how to apply them to the present purpose I deny not the Excellent Use and Advantage of the Mechanick Philosophy of which I have spoken in another place for most of the Great and Brave Discoveries of this Age in Physiology Medicks c. are owing to this but that which I assert at present is that it is no ways applicable to the matter in hand viz. the Hypothesis of the Copernicans for there is not one of them so far as I can judg that hath solidly shew'd and prov'd the agreeableness of the Earths Circumgyration to the Laws of Mechanism There is a late Writer that talks as much of the Mechanical Laws of Motion as any man but though he asserts the Diurnal Circumvolution of the Earth yet he holds that in the time of Mans Innocence there was no such thing but that it was the effect of Man's Fall and immediately follow'd upon the Curse on the Earth and is part of its Curse Whence it follows that the Earths Motion was not the Primitive state and property of it it was not Natural to it but preternatural inordinate and irregular and consequently not according to the stated laws of Mechanism And as for the Other Authors who endeavour to solve the Earths Motion in a Mechanical way it is evident that they are not able to effect what they have undertaken And how indeed can we expect they should do it when we find them disagreeing about the Mechanick Laws There never was a greater dissenâ—ion among Natural Pilosophers than there is about this one thing as appears from comparing the Writings of Des Cartes who was the First Substantial Author of Mechanism Dr. More Dr. Burnet Mr. Newton Dr. Woodward Mr. Whiston and other Philosophical Men of this age who have built their respective and different Hypotheses and Theories on their different notions of Mechanick Principles and Agents They all pretend to proceed upon Mechanical Laws their Solutions are founded on the Natural Tendency of Matter and yet we see how wide their Notions are from one another and how their Hypotheses are contradictory to each other Which plainly shews how fallacious an Argument Mechanism is And if we speak particularly of the matter now before us who sees not how differently these Principles and Laws are applied Some Writers as this present Objector himself acknowledges making out the Copernican Hypothesis by the notion of Vortices others by that of Mutual Gravitation about a Common Center First some think the Motion of the Earth demonstrable from the Vortices So the Great Des Cartes and the famous Dr. More in one of his Epistles and there are others that espouse this part of the Cartesian Physicks But it were easie to shew how improbable an Hypothesis this is on several accounts for it puts a Force upon Nature because according to Des Cartes's own Principle all bodies moving Circularly endeavour to get free of that motion and to alter the Center so that
there is nothing like Natural Motion in the hypothesis of Vortices but all is Violent and against the easie known laws of Mechanism The Vortices are impetuous Torrents of fluid matter continually emptying and discharging themselves the Poles of every one of them are made forcible Dreiners for the Eclipticks and there is a constant disgorging and evacuating of such and such a Set of Particles accompanied always with a violent emission impulse and protrusion So that without Revelation we may tell that there is War in heaven perpetual justing and tilting jarring and fighting Among the Vortical Orbs Celestial and Planetary there are Commotions and Tumults and the World is in a Continual Hurly-burly a Pell-mell a Confusion That the Vortices keep their Station and are not swallow'd up of one another is a Miracle One would think that it is impossible but that they should encroach upon one another according to the nature of that violent and rapid motion which the Author of them hath described The truth is no considerate and thoughtful man can apprehend how the World hath been able to subsist so long as it hath on the supposition of that make and composition of the Vortices Moreover it might be proved that the doctrine of Vortices destroys the common notion of Gravity i. e. the descent of heavy bodies to the Center that it must necessarily hinder the Sun and Stars from being seen that it is utterly inconsistent with the Steadiness of their motions and the certainty of their Revolutions that it is irreconcileable with the Flux and Reflux of the Sea c. This and much more may be made good concerning the Vortices which renders Des Cartes's System precarious And indeed the Excellent Author himself thought it to be no other in his Philosophical Principles part 3. Sect. 45. and in two or three other places of his Writings as those that are acquainted with them know very well he confesses it to be but a bare Hypothesis he lets us know that he took the liberty to feign and invent this And indeed any man of castigate thoughts can't but perceive that it is a mere Romantick strain that this Earth of ours was once a Sun and that all the World was Heavens at first This is Ingenious and Fine but not Solid The World of Whirl-pools is a World of Monsieur Des Cartes's own making He intended it only for a Philosophical Expedient which might serve to give an account of the Phaenomena in the Heavens and the Earth but it is all Supposition and you can't build a Body of Natural Philosophy upon it nay you can't evince the Earth's Motion which is the thing contended for from this supposal Hence it is that some Great Philosophers of this Age labour to establish this doctrine on another Hypothesis which they would not do if they thought the laws of Mechanism as grounded on the Opinion of Vortices were true and solid They would acquiesce in this and not look out for some other way to give a Solution of the Problem but we see they are dissatisfied and fly to some other way of solving this doctrine of theirs Secondly then it Vortices cannot do it Gravity must This is another Principle of Mechanism that is relied upon The Chief Person of late that manages this is the Learned and Profound Mr. Newton who in his Princip Philos. Math. tells us that there is Rest in the Common Center of Gravity and if the Sun be the Center then it rests and the Earth moves about it But first who is there that weighing the several Systems of the World the Ptolemaick Tychonick c. sees not how difficult it is to determine what part of the Universe is its Center They Learned Brahe thought the spoke and argued like a Mathematician and Astronomer when he defended the Earths Gentreity Again Mr. Newton himself seems not to hold that the Sun is the Center of the Mundane System nay he owns expresly in his 10th Proposit. the distance of the Solar body from the Center of Gravity which respects it self and all the Planetary bodies with the Earth Besides this Mechanical Principle which is stiled Vis Gentripeta or Gravity is very obscure and doubtful and therefore unsatisfactory because of the Different if not contrary hypotheses it is built upon according to the Various apprehensions of Philosophical heads From the discrepancy of their notions and their ways of solving this Phoenomenon we are able to gather only this that the Problem of Gravitation or Non-gravitation and the suppositions and solutions about it have puzzled the Wits of the profoundest Vertuoso's and consequently we have no Sure footing here Further the Laws of Gravity can scarcely be said to be Mechanical for Gravitation is not a Mechanick Principle because it flows not from the Nature of Bodies they being in themselves of a Passive nature and therefore cannot tend towards other Bodies or draw them to them There is no such Activity in mere Corporeal and Material Beings and consequently the laws of the Universal Tendency or Attraction of Matter which are supposed must have another Spring Dr. More in his Metaphysicks will let you know that they proceed from an Higher Principle that they can't be solv'd in a mere Mechanical way that they are above and beyond all the force of Mechanism and depend wholly and entirely on the Divine Omnipotent Mover But then you will say the Gravity of bodies is a Miracle for the notion we have of a Miracle is that it is some Occurrence which is above or contrary to the fix'd course of Nature To which I answer tho' it is true the main and chief thing which constitutes a Miracle is that is surpasses finite power and is the result of an Omnipotent Agent yet there are other Properties which must concur to denominate a Miracle as Rarity and Wonder but these two are wanting here for Gravity and the Effects of it are common and usual and as the consequent of that beget not Admiration and Amazement and for these reasons we stile them not Miraculous But notwithstanding this we may hold that they are things that exceed the power of mere Nature they are not from the efficiciency of Matter in what manner soever moved but are immediately from a Divine hand Gravity saith a late Learned Writer is above besides and contrary to the nature of Matter and is the effect of a Divine Power and Efficacy which governs the whole world nay he sticks not to say of a Supernatural and Miraculous Influence And an other Ingenious Gentleman speaks to the same purpose Lastly as to Mechanism it self the laws and rules of it are very disputable and therefore we can't solidly argue from it The Renowned Cartesians that Great and Mighty Genius of Mechanism whom all the Learned World admires and applauds proceeds upon and proves all by Mechanick Principles in his Theory of the Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies but yet we find that several of his
what I have or shall suggest Secondly he tells us that though the Sun and other Planets were not part of the Creation which Moses relates yet they are inserted into his Narrative of the Six days Work because he had a mind to gratify the dull ignorant people the rude and illiterate Iews he spoke of before Those Heavenly Bodies are fetch'd in here to comply with the Vulgar Notion that they are part of the Clouds or belong to the region of the Air. p. 21 22 It is true it is not unusual in the Holy Scriptures to condescend in some expressions to the Capacity of the Vulgar and there is an Instance of it in this very Chapter v. 16 but this is a quite different thing from giving a Set Narration of a Matter when there is really no such thing as is related Which is the case here for this Writer holds that Moses to condescend to the apprehensions of the people tells them expressly that the Sun Moon and Stars were created on the 4th day and placed in the upper Firmament though there was nothing of that nature nothing created nothing then made nothing in that place Set. If it were only Impertinency that was charg'd upon Moses by the Theorist viz. that he brings into his Diary things that are nothing to the purpose that the hooks in the Solar System into the History that appertains only to the Sublunary World we might bear with it though it is an ill Imputation and unworthy of the Inspired Writer but when he charges him with Deceit and Falsity it is not to be suffer'd Moses as he grants pretends to speak in this Chapter of Matter of Fact to relate the distinct time and proper place when and where things were done and yet this Relation is not True and Real but a misrepresentation and a false account of things for whereas Moses mentions a certain Time and particular Day when the Lights of heaven were created this Author peremptorily denies that they were created at that Time and on that Day and whereas Moses tells us that the Luminaries were set in the firmament of heaven he saith the true place of these bodies is not assign'd them p. 18. However Moses records it in his Journal right or wrong to please and at the same time to deceive the dull People He and his Abettors would excuse themselves by saying it is only concealing the Truth but that is apparently false for here is Actual Deception and Falsifying because here is a Positive and Downright relating of what was not True and yet delivering it as True As to what this Worthy Author saith that here is a compliance with the Common Notions viz. that the Sun and Stars are part of the Clouds or belong to the Region of the Air he makes the Vulgar more Simple and Ignorant then they are to shew himself more wise than others in his interpretation of the place And especially he forgets here though he mentioned it before that the Jewish Rabble were come lately from Egypt and there we know there were seldom any Clouds there being constantly a Clear and Serene Sky so that it was Impossible they should be bred up with this notion viz. that the Sun was seated in the Firmament of the Air where the Clouds are This was not thought of by our Author otherwise he would not have averred that Moses here accommodates himself to the Popular Humour and apprehension and that he spoke to those of the Iewish Nation who who were unlearned and Ignorant Thirdly he offers this as an other ground of his strange Interpretation that though Moses makes mention of the Sun Moon and Stars in his Diary of the Creation yet these great Luminaries of the world were made before and only now placed or seem to be placed in our Firmament p. 14 15. It is not necessary saith he to believe that these bodies were then first created when Moses makes mention of them p. 14. Which is against the whole tenour scope and coherence of the Chapter and contrary to the Stile and Expressions in every part of it which all run in the Preter-perfect Tense not in the more then perfect Tense as he would have it understood Who can think that the Narrative concerning the fourth days work is to be Understood in a different way from all the Rest All things belonging to the other days works are set down exactly and according to the matter of Fact but here he fancies it is otherwise the stile varies and there was no such thing as this days work so that there was a Double Sabbath according to him God rested from the works of Creation on the fourth and on the seventh day But however to fill up the space Moses faith something and makes us believe that there was something done And this he doth to suit himself to the Capacities of the Illiterate and Vulgar Whence it might be inferred that in the Rest of the Chapter he turns himself to the Learned and Wise but then the Author differs from himself for he had informed us before that among the Iews at that time there were no Philosophers but that they were all Idiots and Blockheads These are the strange and wild notions of our Theorist and yet they are swallowed down though I hope but by few besides himself rather then the Literal and Plain History of Moses shall take place rather than he will adhere to the Genuine sense of the Text. And he himself acknowledges that all the other parts of the Chapter excepting what relates to the Fourth days work are to be taken otherwise that is they are meant of what was really done on those Particular Days which are specified and there is no reason imaginable to make any Exception as to the Fourth day He would come off by suggestions that the Sun and Moon and Stars are then said to be made or created when they became Conspicuous and their bodies distinctly Visible p. 23. so that according to this New Expositor they were not made till there was a clear Day or Night to shew them The Author of this Conceit is two Learn'd to persist in it and too ingenuous not to blush at it Fourthly an other profound Reason why the Heavenly Bodies are thus placed by Moses was to prevent Idolizing of them It was to shew us the unreasonableness of all sorts of Idolatry or of the worship of any visible beings though never so useful and glorious p. 81. Nay he tells us that the securing of the Iews from the adoration of the host of heaven could not otherwise have been provided for p. 28. Till the force of this Reason can be apprehended we may truely say there was poor Provision made against Idolatry yea none at all Unless he means all the stars Fixed as well as others which his Hypothesis will not allow of it could not be designed to obviate or hinder Idolatry this every one cannot but apprehend Or can we imagine that the most Holy