the vast quantity of Water which is requisite to make such a Deluge and according to his computation makes up a sum of eight Oceans that is eight times as much Water as all the Seas in the World contain You must suppose this man a rare Hydrographer and can tell us exactly to a fathom the depth of all the Seas in the World not only near the shore but in the main fathomless Ocean nay his skill reaches above the Heavens and can tell you the quantity of Waters there By what Art or Instrument this is computed is best known to himself but not intelligible to any body else But let us hear the rest He then affirms that all the Waters upon or under the Earth together with the Waters above the Firmament would not amount to much above one Ocean so that there would be above six wanting to fill up the Valleys to the Mountain tops and fifteen Cubits upwards You must know this man is a rare Geographer also and hath taken the heighth of every Mountain and the depth of every Valley in the whole World and can tell you what quantity of Water is requisite to fill them up and make an even Sphere with the whole Earth And then concludes That 't is not intelligible from whence so great a quantity of Water should be produced and whither it should be conveyed after the Deluge Well let it be unintelligible Is it a good consequence therefore to say it is Incredible This man professes to believe that God created all this whole World from nothing not onely the Earth but the vast incomprehensible Heavens with Sun and Moon and all the innumerable Stars and believing this could not doubt but God having a mind to overflow this whole Earth could far more easily find Water enough to make such a Flood And should I say he did create Water on this occasion what can he say to confute it Where hath God in Scripture confined himself from any new Creation for ever No where as I know of for to say that God rested the seventh day from all his Work certainly cannot imply that God must never work more John 5. 17. Christ faith My Father worketh hitherto and I work We find in the Gospel our Saviour fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes I may as well say this is unintelligible and consequently Incredible yet no good Christian doubts of the truth And why then might not God multiply the Waters in that Deluge as well as multiply the Loaves in the Gospel Wherefore if we say that the Waters in this great Deluge were multiplied methinks a true Believer should rest satisfied with such an answer for this way of multiplication better satisfies an Objection of his made Pag. 19. That Moses saith the Waters increased by degrees for when our Saviour multiplied the Loaves he did not at once create as many as would satisfie the five thousand but multiplied them by degrees as the Disciples distributed them and when they returned they still found more to distribute And so the Waters by degrees increased and decreased likewise by degrees But saith he What became of all these Waters after the Deluge Where were they disposed A strange Question for a Believer to ask as if the same Power that multiplied could not also lessen And thus he may have eight or eighteen Oceans if it were requisite to make up his Deluge which says he is unintelligible yet is very intelligible to any true Believer tho the means whereby so much Water was produced be unintelligible And I would gladly know of any man what absurdity or what inconvenience there would be to Religion in this way of multiplication I profess I cannot see why any one should scruple at the unintelligibleness of this if he believes the other of multiplying Loaves in the Gospel And therefore I require our Theorist to shew us some inconvenience or unintelligibleness in the one more than in the other VII But he brings a Rule out of S. Austin That in the difficulties of Scripture we should not easily make use of Gods Omnipotency for their interpretation Let it be so we are not easily to make use of Gods Omnipotency Must we therefore never use it Are there not a hundred Miracles in Scripture which neither St. Austin nor this man with all his Philosophy can shew how they could be done in a Natural way And therefore when our Reason cannot find out how such a thing can be effected by any other means than by Gods Omnipotency we aseribe it unto that This saith he is to make God march forwards and backwards create and annihilate multiply and lessen according to our will and pleasure Not so but according to his own Word When he tells us such a thing was done by him and we cannot in reason find out how it was done by any other means than by Creation or Multiplication we do not then vainly make use of his Omnipotency but only to make good his own Word And I conceive we can never fully satisfie our Reason and answer every Objection that may be made in this matter of the Deluge and in many other things contained in Scripture without some such way And give me leave to say further We do in this deal much more mannerly with the Deity than he does for we leave God to his own liberty to Create or multiply when he sees occasion but this Man would bind up Gods hands and manacle them so as he must not by any means Create anew or Multiply be the occasion ever so great even the Deluge of the whole World And truly this Man seems to me and I believe to all Men else a very Miracle who allows no Miracle in the Deluge but will needs have all done by Intelligible and Rational ways as he calls it but we may rather call it a fictitious and Romantick way as we shall see by and by when we come to it VIII But I think it fit at present to give an Answer to an Objection made by him I shall make bold to say very frivolous Moses saith he in the description of the Deluge ascribes it unto two express Causes the breaking open the Fountains of the great Deep and opening the Windows of Heaven and by these two means the Deluge arose and overflowed the World Here you may see Moses tells you the means whereby the Deluge was effected Moses makes no mention of Creating or Multiplying power And what of all this Was there therefore no extraordinary power made use of in the Deluge Job 9. 6. It is said our Saviour spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him Go wash in the Pool of Siloam he went his way therefore and washed and came seeing Here you see the means expressed whereby this mans eyes were opened viz. by anointing his eyes with clay and washing in the Pool of Siloam Were this
mans eyes opened by a Rational way or by a Miracle So likewise at the Pool of Bethesda John 5. an Angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had Here we see the means express'd how they were cured yet without all doubt a miraculous means and far above the Reason of this Man and beyond his Philosophy to find out be it ever so great And so it is related by Moses himself when God caused the people to pass through the Red Sea Exod. 14. 21. Moses stretched out his hand over the Sea and the Lord caused the Sea to go back by a strong East-wind all that night and made the Sea dry Land and the waters were divided and the Children of Israel went into the middest of the Sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left Here we see a means used Moses stretching out his hand over the Sea and the Sea went back by a strong East-wind all night So that the Sea was not dried up of a sudden but by degrees Now will this Man with his Philosophy shew us a Rational way how this was done without any Miracle most absurd And just so though Moses ascribes the Deluge to a means the breaking open the Fountains of the great Deep and the Windows of Heaven to be opened and the Rain to descend and the Fountains to run forty days and forty nights and so the Flood prevailed till it overflowed the whole World to say there was no Miracle at all in this is as absurd and especially in his way of his new-found World where were neither Seas Rains nor Tempests whatsoever till the Flood but a constant calm serene Air perpetually which must needs cause them to think such a Deluge miraculous indeed never having any such thing as Rain before and of a sudden to see Water poured down in such wonderful abundance for forty days together If we should see Fire descend from Heaven in like manner forty days together no Man would doubt to affirm it to be a Miracle not Intelligible And thus you see what wonderful unintelligible difficulties this Man hath raised out of his Philosophy in this matter of the Deluge which he so much stumbles at IX But because he is a Man so desirous that all should be done in a Rational way we will endeavour a little to make this Deluge Intelligible in his own way and shew him how we may find Water enough for it in the vast great Deep below which he says is fathomless and from the vaster Heaven above which I may call Boundless in comparison of the lesser body of Earth to overflow that little circumference though it be taken fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountain and so make up his eight Oceans which he says is requisite Gen. 1. We find that when God created the Heavens and the Earth the Waters covered the Earth and then God divided the Waters and placed some above the Firmament and left some remaining under it Where or how the Waters above the Firmament were placed the Scripture doth not mention and therefore I acknowledg my ignorance and I find very knowing persons have much disputed whether in his Atmosphere or in some higher place but I rest contented in believing it because the Word of God hath said it Yet if I may propose my thoughts I conceive they might be placed in some upper part of the Aerial Firmament and not carried up above the Heavens as some have fansied and there extended to a far wider circumference than they were in here below whilst they compassed the Earth for a great depth of Water here when carried up and enlarged to that mighty extent would make a far thinner Orb and as clear as Crystal all earthly parts being extracted and no way hinder but rather encrease the light of Sun Moon and Stars as we see glasses of like nature do If this Philosopher tell me that immediately above the Air lies the fiery Region an ill neighbour for the Water I shall make bold to ask him how he knows that Hath he ever been there to see it As for Philosophers talk I think it much like Physicians many guesses but no certainty of any thing But if he like not this place for the Waters let him find out another for I hope he will not deny Moses's plain words That the Waters were divided and part placed above the Firmament If this Philosopher ask me farther how the Water being a heavier body than the Air doth there subsist and not fall down again I shall ask him how the thickest and heaviest Clouds sometimes pass away without any falling Rain and sometimes thin and far lighter Clouds fall down in showers How at the Prayer of Eliah it rained not on the Earth by the space of three years and six months and he pray'd again and the Heaven gave rain James 5. 17. Will this Philosopher say this was done by the course of Nature and ordinary means I am sure S. James ascribes it to Eliah's Prayer which withheld the natural course of the Rains descending for presently when he prayed again the Heaven gave rain All Elements have no other station than what God hath appointed them We know the fire came down from above when God commanded and burnt Sodom and Gomorrha And we are likewise assured that God commanding the Waters ascended up on high and that the Firmament is betwixt those above and those below this the Scripture declares Wherefore the first Principle of my Philosophy is To believe the Scriptures and that God governs all things and that every Element keeps that station which God hath appointed until he determine otherwise But if this Theorist be unsatisfied with this kind of discourse as not agreeing with his Principles of Nature let him place the Waters above the Firmament where he will it matters not to me Yet if he allow the Scripture he must join with me and grant that God had a great reserve of Waters in some Storehouse above to make use of whensoever he pleased As for the Waters under the Firmament first they covered all the Earth after they were divided then God gathered them together unto one place and made the dry land appear and God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters called he Seas For the reception of which Waters he had prepared a Channel how deep or how great a part of the Earth is filled with them I suppose is beyond this Mans skill in Philosophy or Hydrography to determine yet so that they were not all contained in the depth of that Channel below the Earth but part within the Channel and part remaining yet higher than the Earth in a wonderful manner as David expresseth it Psalm 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heap He
that it were more Tautological if he did use the same words here but he doth not express it here at-large having exprest it in the former Chapter And if he did use the same expression here as he did in the former Chapter Have we not very many repetitions of things in Scripture mentioned in a former Chapter and in the same Chapter also XIII His fifth Argument is much the same with the third comparing the whole destruction of the Heavens and the Earth with the destruction of the Heavens and the Earth in the former World To this I answer as I did there that if he will needs compare both then the Heavens as well as the Earth must be destroyed in the former for you see he speaks in the Plural number as I said before the Heavens not the Firmament or Region of the Air as our Theorist would have it but the Superior Heavens that of old at the Creation were made by the Word of God which certainly are the same now as they were at the beginning and did not perish Neither did S. Peter mean this perishing of the Earth or Air but after he hath named the Heavens and the Earth he doth not say they perish'd but the World that is the World of the ungodly mentioned in the former Chapter Nor can it be properly said that the Earth perish'd if it were broken and the fashion of it changed as our Theorist would have it We do not say if a man hath broken his Legs or Arms by a fall that he perish'd but when he dies and all his Body perishes Perishing implies a total destruction But of the World of the ungodly it was properly said they perished being wholly destroyed And the main business of St. Peter was to Preach perishing and destruction to these Scoffers and for their sakes and such-like Sinners the Heavens and the Earth shall be consumed together with them XIV I know St. Austin and some others have applied these words of St. Peter to the perishing of the Firmament or Region of the Air yet very few in comparison of those that have thought otherwise but I wish him to observe a Rule that St. Austin gives of distinction between the Scripture and other mens Writings as well as a Rule he shews us ut quantalibet sanctitate doctrinaque praepolleant non ideo verum putem quia ipsi ita senserint sed quia c. That how holy or learned soever Men are I do not therefore believe it to be true because they say so but as far as they bring Scripture for it or some very probable reason And I am sure the words themselves in Scripture are the Heavens in the Plural and not the Firmament in the Singular and therefore we may more surely adhere to them than to the words of some few Men And yet they allow no such perishing of the Earth or Air as our Theorist would have but some small alteration It was the World of the ungodly the Animate World that wholly perish'd XV. I think it sit to answer here an Argument that our Theorist seems mightily to boast of the Rainbow which he affirms never appeared in the World till after the Flood and from thence would prove an alteration in the Airy Region What tho it do prove an alteration yet it proves no perishing which St. Peter affirms of the old World that it perish'd And how doth he prove this alteration He assirms it 't is true but proves it not by any other Argument but that God set his Bow in the Clouds to assure Noah of his promise that the World should never be destroyed by Water again No doubt a most clear proof I would fain ask this Theorist whether a Man of years being Baptized doth not take the sign of washing in that Sacrament for an assurance of his regeneration and forgiveness of his Sins tho perchance he hath been often washed before And thus tho Rainbows had often appeared before the Flood yet God might afterwards appoint it for a sign unto Noah to assure him that he would never destroy the World again by Water And so you see what becomes of this Mans convincing Argument he much boasts of But to return to St. Peter XVI Having thus expounded his words and shewed as I humbly conceive that our Theorist hath little or no ground for his vain siction I shall be bold to tell him further that it is very impertinent to talk to the Apostles of an Antithesis and Apodosis Tautologies or Redundancies and such-like terms of Rhetorick or Grammar-Rules fitter for School-boys to learn than for them whom our Saviour chose as unlearned and poor Fisher-men to Preach his Gospel to the Learned and Wise men of this World and by the Foolishness of Preaching as St. Paul calls it that is by plain and simple Preaching which the World calls Foolishness to confound all their Learning and Wisdom for the Apostles observed no such curious method and exactness of discourse but in their Preaching or Prophesying out of Zeal spake sometimes very abruptly and incoherently sometimes relating to one matter sometimes to another as the Spirit gave them utterance XVII And now I shall prove from these very words of St. Peter the clean contrary to what he affirms viz. His Antediluvian Earth without any Sea For St. Peter here in plain words affirms that the Earth before the Deluge stood part out of the water and part in the water These are his plain words without any such long Comment as he hath brought upon them But he objects that this our English Translation doth not accord with the original Greek which doth express it otherwise saying The earth standing Out of the water and By the water not In the water However these words of St. Peter express two distinct situations of the Earth Out of the water and By the water Let our Theorist tell me what those two distinct situations are out and by and I will presently shew him how that they cannot agree with his new-found Earth where the Waters were all in one manner situated within the Earth and none at all without But I shall now shew him from Gen. 1. which these words have a relation to that the words of St. Peter agree very well with the exposition of our English Translators Out of the water and in the water for Gen. 1. 9 10. it is said God gathered the waters together unto one place and made the dry land appear And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas Here you see the Earth out of the Waters in one place And I pray you let our Theorist tell us where the other part of the Earth was Was it not in the Waters for the Waters covered it It may be said also it was by or near the Waters as St. Peter hath it but yet more properly in the Waters And the Author of this Epistle whoever he was must needs intend the same if
brutish Reason nay more than brutish in comparison of the Divine Infinite Wisdom Wherefore S. Paul with great reason bids us Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Not that true Reason or true Philosophy can spoil any man but vain and deceitful Reason and Philosophy such as the tradition or experiments of the World commonly make use of XII This pains I have taken to satisfie this over-inquisitive Man in the Works of God which he saith God hath given him Reason to employ in but yet to be done with Reason and Moderation which he doth not Having thus as I humbly conceive sufficiently declared where the quantity of Water may be found to make up such a Deluge as Moses mentions either wholly by Waters already created or if you please to take in the Divine Power of Multiplication which sure we may allow here as well as we believe it to be done in the Gospel-loaves then I am sure it is easie to find out Water for it And I think no sober man will deny in this Deluge a Miracle was wrought in the extraordinary manner of the Rains descending and the Fountains flowing let this Man deny what he pleases for some men cannot be confuted but by Club-reasons I desire him to remember what he saith Pag. 297. concerning Lucretius Though his suppositions be very precarious and his Reasonings all along very slight he will many times strut and triumph as if he had wrested the Thunder out of Joves right hand and a Mathematician is not more confident of his Demonstration than he seems to be of the truth of his shallow Philosophy Mutato nomine de te XIII We will now proceed to the manner of this Flood how Moses describes the beginning rise and increase of the Waters and likewise how he describes the decrease which I desire you to observe very well that when we come to compare it with this Mans invention and manner of it you may see how strangely he prevaricates from the Truth related by Moses Gen. 7. 11 c. where he saith The same day that Noah entred into the Ark were all the fountains of the great Deep broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights And ver 17. he saith The Flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the Ark and it was lifted up above the earth and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth and the Ark went upon the face of the waters and all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail and the Mountains were covered And then concludes the Chapter at ver 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days Here you see how the Waters swelled first to that height as to reach to the place where the Ark stood and the Waters rose more and more till at length the Ark was lifted up above the Earth and as the Waters prevailed and covered all the Hills and Mountains under Heaven the Ark went upon the face of the Waters which continued in that manner a hundred and fifty days over the Earth Now can any sober rational man understand these words of Moses otherwise than that the Waters increased so far as at one time they covered the whole Earth not any particular part of it for Moses saith they prevailed upon the Earth in general as he had described it before Valleys and all Hills also So that the Ark moved upon the face of these Waters which thus continued many days And thus the whole Jewish Church and Christian Church in a word all Believers have understood these words of Moses in this very sense Had the words of Moses been any thing obscure and some men had raised doubts upon them he might have had some ground for his understanding them otherwise but the words of Moses being esteemed very plain in themselves and never any doubt raised upon them what other argument would this Man have to prove the sense of them unless he can prove all the World were such Dunces before him as they could not understand plain words Yet notwithstanding all this Gentleman hath the strange confidence to affirm Pag. 80. That without doubt it was a great oversight in the Antients to fansie the Deluge like a great standing Pool of Water reaching from the bottom of the Valleys to the top of the Mountains every where alike with a level and uniform Surface If it were so great an oversight in the Antients Why doth not he prove that oversight Doth he think any man takes his over-confident affirmation to be a proof All the World hitherto understanding them in this sense he should both have shewed and proved particularly wherein this mistake doth lie and set down the words of Moses which our Narration varies from without wresting or labouring to put on another sense than is evident for certainly no man would be so rash and heady as to contradict the whole World without a full and clear Demonstration Yet he neither offers a Demonstration nor any Argument to confute this Opinion but his over-great confidence so great as not to be parallel'd in any Writer that I ever heard of XIV Now let us go on to Moses in the description of the decrease of this Flood in the eighth Chapter where he saith God made a Wind to pass over the earth and the Waters asswaged the Fountains also of the Deep and the windows of Heaven were stopped and the rain from Heaven was restrained and the waters returned from off the earth continually After the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated and the Ark rested in the seventh month upon the Mountains of Ararat and in the first day of the tenth month were the tops of the Mountains seen Here you find how after the Waters had continued several months they sunk by degrees till the Mountain tops were seen and the Ark rested upon the Mount of Ararat Is it not evident also by this place that while the Ark moved upon the face of the Waters all the Mountains under Heaven were covered until the first day of the tenth month when the Mountain tops began to appear No other part of the Mountains was then discovered the standing Pool mentioned before covered all And after this ver 8. it is said Noah sent forth a Dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground but the Dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned unto him into the Ark for the waters were upon the face of the whole Earth So that this Pool continued above forty days after the tenth month began Yet all this will not suffice to convince this Man of his Errour Notwithstanding all
for them for they came not by their knowledg in Divine matters by any such Philosophical way as from Human Principles making Inferences and Consequences after the manner of men in which way this man much admires himself tho he as often failes therein as others guided by their own shallow and deceitful Reason but by Divine Revelation from God and Infusion of his Holy Spirit and spake as that Spirit gave them utterance And tho Moses was learned in all the Wisdom of the Aegyptians yet he made little or no use of that Wisdom nor could ever from thence have found out how the World was at first Created which many great Philosophers were wholly at a loss in and tho they laboured much in it yet could never attain to a right understanding therein but left to the World their vain and idle opinions as a perpetual testimony of their foolery tho much admired by men for their Wisdom III. I should begin with Moses first but I shall be necessitated to interpret him as we go on in the Discourse of his Theory and therefore pass him by here and come to St. Peter whom he so often cites as his main support And after we have done with St. Peter we shall clear some other Scriptures which are cited in his Theory 'T is the second Epistle of St. Peter our Theorist would make use of and therefore I think it not amiss to acquaint the Reader that this second Epistle of St. Peter was not received in the Church for many years and that there are some Reformed Churches that do not yet allow it as Canonical and Authentick But this second Epistle of St. Peter having no material point of Belief but what is contained in other Scriptures expresly or circumstantially and our Church receiving the same I readily submit unto it and let our Theorist make what advantage he can from thence IV. This man tells us that the present World is quite of another form and nature than it was before the Flood then the earth was of a smooth perfect Spherical form a fat and delicious Surface the Air serene and temperate without storms tempests or any boistrous winds coming from the Regions above or arising from the Sea for there was no Sea at all in it all that vast Water was included within the Earth and the Earth in a perfect Sphere round about it but this Earth was at the great Deluge broken all to pieces and the Sea rising up overflowed it and put it all in that confusion as now it is with broken Rocks and Mountains with deep Valleys and Caverns in many places under it and pieces of this Earth scattered in several parts of the present Sea causing innumerable Islands small and great all the World over The Air also now boistrous and turbulent with various Heats and Colds so that for one calm and serene day we have ten if not twenty quite otherwise And for this his Assertion he hath no Scripture at all but something to colour the business he would fain scrue out of St. Peter's 2 Ep. 3. 5. c. where he tells us that S. Peter sets forth an evident opposition or diversity betwixt the old World before the Flood and our present World Now good Reader I desire you to view this Chapter from v. 1. to v. 9. or 10. and see what you can find there to this purpose without either his or my Comment upon it and when you have done hear what he saith of it pag. 48 especially of v. 5 6 7. viz. That this is so pregnant a place to his purpose as he should do an Injury to Providence had he neglected to take notice of this passage and that the Apostles discourse is so plain and easie as every one at first sight must needs discover the meaning of it These expressions of his would make a man expect to find in St. Peter his whole Theory and description of his Antediluvian Earth set forth on the one hand and the different state of our present Earth as plainly set forth on the other V. The best way to have a good understanding of any mans Writings is to consider the business that he is upon and what he designs and then if we meet with any difficulty or obscurity in his discourse we may be sure from his design to discover the right meaning of them Let us then consider what the business of St. Peter is in this second Epistle 'T is not a Philosophical Discourse to teach us the nature and constitution of the Heavens or the Earth but to teach wicked men the nature of Sin and to shew them the Judgment and Danger that constantly follows it this is the business of this Epistle and therefore he brings several examples of fearful Judgments that befel wicked men for their obstinacy in Sin And his design is to bring them to Repentance and so to avoid the grievous Punishment that will certainly fall upon them if they persist Now let us come to the words of St. Peter cited by our Theorist which are these c. 3. v. 5 c. For this they are willingly ignorant of That by the word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water whereby the World that then was being overflowed with Water perished But the Heavens and the Earth that are now by the same Word are kept in store reserved unto Fire against the day of Judgment This passage I have Read full oft but could never yet see at the first sight nor at the twentieth any thing relating to his new fancy And if it were so easy to discover at first sight what need he so enlarge upon it for four whole pages together turning and wresting the words with many ambages to bring them about to his bent I shall now in few words lay down the meaning of St. Peter It is an Answer as he truly saith to certain Scoffers who made a mock at the Apostles threatening the coming of our Saviour to Judgment with fiery indignation at the end of the World and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation To this St. Peter answers That they were willingly ignorant of this That by the Word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water whereby the World that then was being overflowed with Water perished They are willingly ignorant or wilfully ignorant how that God by his Word made the Heavens of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water whereby the Animate World that is all Men and other living Creatures of the Earth being overflowed perished They willingly forget this Judgment of God executed upon the old World and therefore will not believe That the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the
day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly Men. But this they may be sure of that as by the Word of God they were warned then of the Deluge which came upon ungodly Men So now we give you warning that by the same Word of God this World at our Saviours coming shall be destroyed by Fire not only the Earth but the Heavens also shall melt with fervent Heat This is the plain and full meaning of St. Peter's words and this indeed is obvious to any understanding Person at first sight And this is St. Peter's business here to set forth Gods Judgments upon Sin and not the diversity of the old Heavens or Earth from the present for here is nothing mentioning any such diversity or opposition in the former Earth to the present Earth no more than in the former Heavens to the present Heavens where he would have a perfect Antithesis forsooth and a direct opposition between the former Heavens and Earth and the present Heavens and Earth Now let us hear St. Peter's words in the Original Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are willingly or wilfully ignorant that the Heavens were that is Created of old and the Earth situated out of the Water and by the Water but the present Heavens and Earth by the same Word are kept in store against the day of Judgment He doth not say here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This might be an Antithesis but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heavens were Created of old by the word of God and so sure were the present Heavens And for the Earth he saith it was situated out of the Water and by the Water He doth not say the Heavens and the Earth were both so situated but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a participle of the Feminine Gender and Singular number agreeing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth whereas had he meant the Heavens also were so situated he should have used another Gender and the Plural number so that this situation belongs only to the Earth Then follows But the present Heavens and Earth are by the same Word kept in store reserved unto Fire What opposition is here The Heavens and the Earth were Created of old by God But the present Heavens and Earth are by God reserved unto Fire Here is no diversity or opposition experst betwixt the old Heavens and Earth and the new Heavens and Earth but only the diversity or opposition between the two Judgments the one was only of the Earth by Water and the other is to be of both Heavens and Earth by Fire Not one word here of a disposition in the old Heavens to Water and the present Heavens to Fire nor any disposition in the Earth to the one of old or to the other now but that the former Earth was situated out of and by Water and is now reserved unto Fire Let our Theorist if he can shew me how the Heavens or how the Earth is now disposed for Fire I see not a word in St. Peter signifying any such thing tho he with his wonted confidence doth affirm it pag. 233 and say that St. Peter doth formally and expresly tells us that the old Heavens or the Antediluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours and particularly that they were composed or constituted of Water and in the margin sets down 2 Epist. Pet. 3. 5. Now to say that a thing is formally and expresly told us sure you will expect to find that thing in the same formal or very words I pray you now look back upon the very words and see if you can find any such thing there Are there any such particular words there as he affirms that the Heavens of old were composed or constituted of Water Nor of the Earth is it said that it was composed of Water but that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies as well and as usually situated or settled and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of And so the sense runs thus The Earth placed out of the Water and by or in the Water which cannot relate to the Heavens for then the participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should as I said have been in the Plural number Nor can it be truly said that the Heavens are situated out of the Water and by the Water whatever may be said of the Firmament But he doth not use the word Firmament here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heavens which were of old Created by God in the Plural number all the Heavens the highest as well as the lowest VI. S. Peter having thus express'd the diversity of the Judgments he goes on and infers from the former Judgment that as they found by experience That the word of God threatening them with a Deluge came really to pass and all perished So the word of God now threatening them with a Conflagration will assuredly consume them This seventh Verse is a consequence inferred from the first and sixth Verses which were the Antecedent and the fifth Verse is so far from being Superfluous or Redundant as our Theorist would have it that from thence the Apostle takes the Rise of his Argument and begins That by the word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water Whereby that is by which Waters the World of the ungodly that then was being overflowed with Water perished The Earth standing out of the Water and by the Water those Waters commanded by the word of God overflowed the Earth with the ungodly The Waters which were before miraculously restrained by the Word of God beingnow let loose by the same Word overflowed the world and would do so again were they not restrain'd for there the same disposition or rather situation of the Earth now as was of old but the Word Will or Promise of God is now otherwise than it was of old Whereof I shall speak more by and by The word of God goes along in all this Discourse and is set forth as the only cause of the Deluge of old and the Conflagration to come Which follows in the seventh verse But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same Word are kept in store by no disposition nor any natural cause preparing them for it reserved unto Fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly Men. For their sakes this Judgment is to be then brought upon the Heavens as well as the Earth And so there will be a total end of this World and then will follow as it is v. 13. according to Gods promise new Heavens and a new Earth whether literally or figuratively this Epistle doth not declare Let this Theorist with his strange Confidence declare what he pleases I am ready to declare my Ignorance herein But these Scoffers as they were willingly ignorant and forgetful how the
Deluge came upon the Old World So now they are willingly heedless and will not believe that this Conflagration will assuredly destroy them No man can discover more from these words of St. Peter unless his head be so filled with this mans Theory that neither sleeping nor waking he thinks of any thing else VII I said a little before that in the Flood The Animate World was destroyed But our Theorist will needs have it that the Natural World as he calls it that is the Body and Frame of the Earth was also destroyed by this Flood And for the ground of this his assertion he desires us to take notice that St. Peter in the former Chapter speaking of the Flood saith that it was brought upon the World of the ungodly but does not mention the ungodly here I pray you what need was there to mention it here having in the former Chapter declared particularly what he meant by the World the World of the ungodly destroyed by the Flood And so here he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Singular number the World perished not the Heavens and the Earth perished in the Plural number But after he had mentioned the Heavens and the Earth had he meant their perishing there had been no need at all to add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but should have said they perished It had been very superfluous or redundant to repeat the same again which he exprest immediately before by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore the Apostle must needs mean somewhat more by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the ungodly and moreover adds O` 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the ungodly that then was in being or then lived that World perished And farther to shew you that he here meant the World of the ungodly he ends the following verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World which perished in the former verse in the next verse is reserved unto judgment and perdition of ungodly men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VIII But if there were any doubt the business would be cleared by looking into Gen. 6. 5. where Moses tells us God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually v. 7. And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping things and the fowls of the air Here God plainly declares what he will destroy viz. Man and Beast not a word mentioning the Earth or Frame of it to be destroyed And therefore we may well conclude that the addition of the Earth it self is this mans invention only no intention of Gods And again v. 17. And behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall die Here likewise is no mention of destroying the Earth or Frame of it but all Flesh shall Die nor is any thing else mentioned in the Chapter following where he plainly describes the Flood and what was destroyed by it Wherefore we may well conclude that St. Peter intended no more than the World of the ungodly which he himself mentioned in the second Chapter upon the same Subject and repeats the same in the third Chapter IX But he objects That the ground that these Scoffers went upon was taken from the Natural World its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning therefore if the Apostle answers ad idem and takes away their Argument he must understand and shew that the Natural World hath perished and been changed The first part of his Argument I grant is true That the ground these Scoffers went upon was taken from the Natural World its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning yet I deny the second part That if the Apostle answers ad idem and takes away their Argument he must understand and shew that the Natural World hath perished and been changed For I shall take away their Argument without any change in the former World and Answer more ad idem than he doth For notwithstanding all things continued as they did yet by the Word of God a Flood came upon the old World And so tho all things continue now as they did from the beginning a Fiery destruction shall come upon them For as I said in all this Argument of the Apostle The Word of God is declared to be the Cause of all By the Word of God the Heavens and the Earth were of old By the Word of God a Deluge came upon the World of the ungodly And so by the Word of God a Fiery destruction shall come upon them notwithstanding the Heavens and the Earth and all things continue as they did This was the Scoffers Argument and S. Peter thus confutes it X. Secondly our Theorist argues that these Scoffers could not be ignorant of the Deluge and therefore it was the change in the old World that they were ignorant of This man will not attend to what St. Peter saith when it does not serve his turn no more than those Scoffers did attend unto the old Testament for St. Peter tells them that tho they had the old Testament read frequently unto them yet they were willingly ignorant that is wilfully and would not attend unto it But such a change as this man would have in the old World they were wholly not wilfully ignorant of and could not understand from Moses any such change for Moses hath not a word of it And therefore this is a plain Argument that there was no change at all in the old World But they were willingly ignorant of that which they might have plainly learnt from Moses both the Creation and the Deluge XI Thirdly he saith St. Peter takes his Argument from the Conflagration which was a real destruction of the World and from thence must infer the destruction of the old World I say St. Peter doth not take his Argument from the destruction of the Heavens and Earth by the Conflagration for then the Heavens must have been destroyed in the old World as well as the Earth I say the Heavens not the Firmament or the Air altered but the whole Heavens all quite consumed by Fire But St. Peter takes his Argument all along from the Word of God as I said before That as by the Word of God the Deluge came unexpected so by the same Word the Conflagration shall come unexpected XII His fourth Argument is the redundancy of the Apostles discourse making the fifth verse wholly supersluous But there is no redundancy in it if you take the Argument as I lay it from Gods Word And that he saith I make the Apostle Tautological if he mean in this Chapter the World of the ungodly for he mentioned it in the former Chapter To this I say
he intend aright whether he call it in or by both must signisie the same thing And therefore his cavilling at our English Translation is very frivolous and captious without ground And thus St. Peter and his Philosophy as he terms it plainly contradicts him and is a pregnant place uttered by Providence if I may say so to confute his new invention And Moses in his Philosophy plainly contradicts him also Whereby it is evident that the Antediluvian Earth and the present Earth are one and the same for that had a Sea covering the Earth as this hath Neither Moses nor St. Peter make any such Philosophical distinction as he would prove from them but clean contrary XVIII And that this present Earth is as subject to a Deluge as the former is evident by that passage in Gen. 9. 8. where God promised to Noah that he would never destroy this World again by Water and confirmed the same also by a Sign All which had been very superfluous and vain if the present Earth were so shaped and fashioned as it could not by destroyed by Water Noah might well have smiled at Gods assurance that it should not be when saith this man it could not be there is not Water enough in the whole Universe as he affirms to cover it again Wherefore as by Gods promise a clear possibility is implied that it may be so by Gods promise also we are assured that it shall not be Unto this Scripture you may add that formerly mentioned Psal. 104. 9. Thou hast set a bound that they the Waters may not pass over and turn again to cover the Earth And that most remarkable passage Jer. 5. 22. Fear ye not me saith the Lord Will ye not tremble at my Presence which have placed the Sand for the Bound of the Sea by a perpetual Decree that it cannot pass it and tho the Waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail tho they roar yet can they not pass over it Where God so plainly expresseth a possibility of the Seas overflowing the Earth again or else we must make Gods threatening very vain And that this Command of God for the restraining of the Sea was not given after the Flood tho it continued then also but before the Flood even at the very first Creation appears Prov. 8. 29. where it is said God gave to the Sea his Decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when he appointed the foundations of the earth I shall speak more of this passage by and by when I come to enlarge more on this Chapter XIX I have shewed you before how that St. Peter declares that both the Deluge was and the Conflagration will be by the Word of God not from any Natural Cause But our Theorist will needs ascribe all unto Natural Causes and the disposition which was in the Earth and Heavens for the Flood So likewise he will have a disposition and frame in them for the Conflagration We shall be very glad to learn from our Theorist what that frame or disposition is wherein it consists At the Deluge he hath a rare knack of invention the Suns so heating the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth that just at such a nick of time the Waters and Vapours from them boiled up and burst the whole Frame of the Earth to pieces But I would fain be satisfied concerning this Fiery destruction to come and know how the Heavens and the Earth they both being of so very different constitutions should both take Fire at once I know Gods Word hath said they shall and therefore I believe it But how this shall come to pass our curiosity desires to know from his Philosophy which tells us so exactly how the Deluge came and may I hope as exactly set forth the future Conflagration and tell us the Natural Causes and Preparatory means to dispose the Heavens and the Earth unto it for I suppose he will stick to his own method of having Natural Causes for all things and will not allow God the liberty to use any extraordinary means tho upon such an extraordinary occasion as the Deluge or Conflagration Nature must act in all these and his Philosophy must find out the means whereby she acts and will discover it unto us and will also shew us how it comes to pass that in three thousand years time and upwards since the Flood we find no visible change or disposition in the Heavens or Earth to a Conflagration more now than formerly If this be too hard a task for him to tell us of the future destruction of the whole World yet methinks he should be able to declare unto us that which is past and shew us the Natural Cause of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction how those Cities came to fall on Fire and the rest of the World escape what disposition there was in that patch of ground or in the Heavens over it to send down Fire upon them XX. I will trouble him no more with Questions of this Nature at present But yet I shall desire leave to give him a short Admonition This way of Philosophising all from Natural Causes I fear will make the whole World turn Scoffers such as St. Peter met with for men supposing and expecting the World to be consumed by Natural Causes as this man would have it and seeing no visible Cause or Alteration in the Heavens or Earth in three thousand years space may conclude that in three thousand years to come there may be as little or no Change and so may ask as those Scoffers did Where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were from the beginning To conclude this matter Let me advise him to trust to Gods Word only that assuredly there will be a Conflagration of the whole World and lay aside his curious vain and endless Philosophising labour to find out the Natural Causes thereof And thus I have taken a great deal of pains more than I intended to shew the little or no ground this man hath so much to boast this second Epistle of St. Peter which first is doubtful and secondly doth so little prove that which he would have tho so frequently made use of in his Theory as if he had proved his whole design from thence Having thus dispatch'd his principal Text on which he so much depends I shall now briefly examin some other Scriptures made use of in his Theory XXI In the ninetieth page of his first Book he hath these words There remains a remarkable discourse in the Proverbs of Solomon relating to the Mosaical Abyss and not only to that but to the Origin of the Earth in general where Wisdom declares her Antiquity and Preexistence to all the Works of this Earth chap. 8. 23. c. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning ' ere the earth was When there were no deeps or Abysses I was brought forth when no fountains abounding with water
Then v. 27. When he prepared the heavens I was there when he set a compass upon the face of the Deep or Abyss When he established the Clouds above when he strengthned the fountains of the Abyss Here is mention made of the Abyss and of the Fountains of the Abyss And who can question but that the Fountains of the Abyss here are the same with the Fountains of the Abyss which Moses mentions and were broke open as he tells us at the Deluge Let us observe therefore what form Wisdom gives to this Abyss and consequently to the Mosaical and here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it v. 28. He strengthened the Fountains of the Abyss that is the cover of those Fountains for the Fountains could be strengthened no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them And that Arch is express'd more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a compass on the Face of the Abyss we render it Compass the world signifies a Circle or Circumference or an Orb or Sphere So there was in the beginning of the World a Sphere Orb or Arch set round about the Abyss according to the Testimony of Wisdom who was then present Thus far our Theorist And in this last part he faith very true that in the beginning the form of the Abyss was in a Circle or Circumference for it encompassed the Earth round about But our Theorist would have the Earth to encompass the Abyss round about and the Abyss included within the Earth which is clean contrary to Moses Gen. 1. 9. where God said Let the Waters under the Heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear In which words you may observe two things First that next unto the Firmament or the Heaven were placed the Waters for v. 7. it is said God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament So that the Firmament was in the middle of the Waters Water above and Water below it But our Theorist in his new World makes the Earth to divide the Waters for all the Abyss was encompassed by the Earth clean contrary to Moses The second thing I desire you to take notice of is that when the Waters thus encompassed the Earth God said Let them be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear So that until this Command of Gods of gathering the Waters together unto one place no dry Land appeared but all was covered with Water But our Theorist clean contrary orders his matters so that dry Land only appeared in a perfect Arch round about the Waters and no Water at all appeared And thus you see how rarely he hath interpreted this compass of the Abyss mentioned here in the Proverbs His following interpretation of v. 28. is as rare He strengthened the Fountains of the Abyss That is according to Wisdom he made them run with a strong Current or to abound with Water as Wisdom expresseth it v. 24. I was brought forth when there were no Fountains abounding with Water But our Theorist in his new Earth will have no Fountains at all abounding or flowing with Water no Fountains at all but saith that the Fountains could be strengthened no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them and that Arch was the whole Earth which had not one Fountain in it abounding with Water So that he makes the Fountains of the Abyss to be only the Abyss without any Fountains appearing and the strengthening of the Fountains of the Deep must be to make no Fountains at all of the Deep You see now how little this place of the Proverbs is to his purpose but rather quite contrary to his new Spherical Earth where he would have neither Mountains Hills nor Sea whereas in this Chapter v. 25. there are both Mountains and Hills plainly declared Wisdom saying Before the Mountains were settled before the Hills was I brought forth And again v. 29. when I gave to the Sea his Decree that the Waters should not pass his Commandment when he appointed the Foundation of the Earth Here you see Mountains Hills and a Sea confined to its bounds at the very beginning of the World when the Foundations of the Earth were first settled All which is as he saies a remarkable passage indeed to confute his new-found World far from confirming it XXII There is another Scripture also which our Theorist makes use of to prove that the Earth was above and the Waters all contained in it and brings for this Psal. 24. 1. The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein v. 2. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods So our Translation hath it upon the Seas But the Word in the Original is Al which signifies as well near or by as upon as you will find it Psal. 1. 3. where it is said of the Righteous he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water Here the same word Al is put for by or near the Rivers of Water which Psal. 24. is translated upon And thus it is interpreted by several Authors He hath founded it juxta by the seas and established it by the floods But perchance our Translators might have regard to another thing in this expression upon the Seas because the Earth hath very great hollows and Caverns in it full of Water from the Sea over which the Earth doth stand and so may be said to be founded upon the Seas the Waters of the Sea passing under the Earth and runing through it to the tops of the Mountains and there springing forth with great Fountains run down the Valleys as it is exprest Psal. 104. 8. where it is said of the-Waters they go up by the mountains they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them And so Psal. 33. 7. 't is said He layeth up the depth in store-houses in those great hollows under the Earth from whence Fountains arise to water it all over And in these Store-houses also he reserved Waters to overflow the whole Earth at the Deluge when the Fountains of this great Deep were broke open and made to run in that excessive manner as together with the forty daies Rain caused an universal Deluge XXIII Another place he makes use of is Psal. 136. 4. where David speaking of the Wonders of God saith To him who alone doth great Wonders for his mercy endureth for ever And then v. 6. To him that stretcheth out the earth above the waters This David recounts as a great wonder for the Waters by their natural situation should be above the Earth and were so at the first Creation the Abyss or great deep encompassing the Earth round But God gathered all the Waters together and made the dry Land
Mankind and done by the same Power by which he created the whole World for the benefit of Men that is that Fountains might run from thence unto the highest Hills and there spring forth to water the whole Earth as David saith Psalm 104. 8. They go up by the Mountains and down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them And v. 13. He watereth the hills from his chambers the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works And for this purpose though the Sea lies ever so high in the main Ocean yet descending by degrees towards the shores it lies there very low that the Rivers may exonerate themselves into it And from hence we may gather the meaning of Moses when for the Deluge he mentioned the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep that is the Fountains and Springs which flow from the great Deep by several passages contrived by God under the Earth to convey the Waters of the great Deep and make the springs run among the highest Hills as David saith and there break out in the tops of the Mountains in such flowing streams as I have been amazed to see it and have seriously considered whether the top of the Mountain sometimes very small above the Spring could possibly contain vapours enough to engender so much Water as flowed from them for a great quantity of vapours being condensed will make but a few drops of solid Water And our Theorist being a Man of observation I doubt not but he hath concluded as I have done That tho the top of the Mountain had been filled with solid Water it could not cause the Spring to run at that rate very many hours And whereas in Autumn Springs that are raised by Vapours condensed into Water at the foot of Hills or in lower grounds do generally cease after a dry Summer or at best run low these from the Mountains continue to flow plentifully And from all this I conclude that when Moses saith the Fountains of the great Deep were broke open he means by the great Deep the same he mentioned in Genesis at the Creation which in the second Verse he calls the Great Deep And the same Waters being gathered together in one place he calls them by the common name of Seas v. 10. which of it self might afford Water enough to cover the whole Earth for it is evident by Moses that the Waters did cover the whole Earth before God gathered them together in one place after they were divided from the Waters above the Firmament XI Now if he take into his consideration all the Waters that were created at the beginning which Moses saith did cover the Earth and how deep they covered it I suppose no man will presume to affirm whether fifteen or fifty Cubits And no man can think that God created abundance of Water to annihilate any part of it again presently without any Cause and therefore we may be assured that the same quantity of Water still remains This then is clear that as these waters did once cover the Earth the same quantity of Waters may do so again Now let him take all these Waters both them above the Firmament which God certainly could as easily bring down as carry them up let the place of their abode be where it will and those under the Firmament he cannot possibly want Water abundantly to serve for a Deluge over the whole Earth Peradventure he will say as he did above That in this carrying the Waters up and down we make God to march backwards and forwards according to our will And I answer again as I did before That we do not make God do any thing but onely shew unto this Theorist who will not allow God either to Create or Multiply the Waters that were created upon so great an occasion as this Deluge how God might do it without either Multiplying or Creating anew I do it then to satisfie his curiosity rather than our own for we rest satisfied with God's affirming that there was such a Deluge and that it was caused by the breaking open of the Fountains and opening the Windows of Heaven whether partly or wholly by those means which Moses sets down we do not positively affirm And yet if we did affirm the Waters to come down from above and the Fountains to run below for the increase and so likewise to be taken up again and the Fountains to run back for the decrease it were no more than we find in Scripture to be done upon a far smaller occasion For God made that mighty body of the Sun which wheels about the Earth with such incomprehensible speed yet at the command of Joshuah that he might have the longer day to obtain a full Victory to stand still Josh. 10. And 2 Kings 20. we find by the Dial of Ahaz it went back ten degrees to satisfie Hezekiahs doubt whether he should recover or no according to the words of Isaiah If on such occasions God did such mighty Miracles What wonder is it if we suppose him to do far greater Miracles upon so much a greater occasion as the Deluge If he will shew me how this was done without a Miracle I will undertake to shew him how the Deluge was made without a Miracle And if God wrought a Miracle then Why not before at the Deluge I hope these Scripture-reasons and examples which I have brought are far more considerable than his trivial experiments of a Mathematical Instrument or Cubical Pot which he mentions also Pag. 13. as to tell us of such a Vessel receiving the Rain when it falls for several hours together and how little a body of Water is found by it and consequently how little this would conduce towards the Deluge I conceive it signifies nothing unless he had been present at the Deluge and seen in what measure the Rains did then descend for upon that occasion who can doubt but that the Waters were poured forth in a strange and wonderful manner the Windows of Heaven being opened so as they will never be again to the Worlds end Wherefore to depend so much upon trivial Experiments and his weak Reason in such extraordinary wonderful and supernatural things as no man can doubt but this Deluge was his Faith may be much damnified though his Reason or rather Fansie may be much delighted with inquisitiveness after them And when he hath done all and spent his whole time to say nothing of things more precious in searching after the Causes of things and wearied himself with busie and toiling labour therein he will find that to be true by experience which weak and deluded Reason will not easily believe That he knows onely this one thing that he knows nothing And therefore 't is a strange presumption for vain man who is born as ignorant ant as a wild asses colt as Job saith c. 11. v. 12. to take upon him to be so wise as to examine and determine the works of God by his
this particular description of Moses which is so plain as I do not know how he could speak plainer telling us how the Deluge was caused this Man hath the confidence to make a very different relation of it Job 28. God asks him a question Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth Declare if thou hast understanding So I may well say to this Man Where wast thou when I brought a Deluge upon the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Sure this Man was not then in being and therefore can discover no more unto us of that Deluge but what he received from others And I desire to know of him whether any of the Antients except the fabulous Heathens have delivered unto him any different narration from Moses concerning this Deluge the Christians sure have no other nor had the fews any other before them who are the men most likely to retain such a Tradition written or unwritten for Abraham had Sem the Son of Noah to instruct him in all things during his whole life of a hundred and seventy years Sem dying after Abraham as all conclude by a just computation Is it not then a strange thing that this Fraction of the Earth being the principal Cause given by this Man for the Deluge and without which there could be none as he affirms I say again Is it not very strange that Sem should not relate so wonderful a matter to Abraham unto whom doubtless he delivered the narration of the Flood with all its circumstances The other Sons of Noah Ham and Japhet lived also many years after the Flood and it is as strange that none of them should mention it to their Posterity and so it might have been conveyed unto Heathens also Yet no man in the World hitherto hath uttered one syllable of it And therefore I think I may safely affirm and he will be very well pleased with it if I say no Author in the World ever understood the Deluge or related it in such a manner as he hath found out and consequently may challenge to himself the glory of it if it be true but must bear the shame also if it be false But if you will have patience I will tell you in short the whole substance of this Deluge as he sets it forth XV. First he presupposes the World to have been before the Deluge of a smooth uniform surface of Earth as I shall shew hereafter without any Sea appearing but all the Sea was enclosed within a compass of Earth round about it and this Earth inhabited by all Mankind whose wickedness grew to be so great that God resolved to destroy them all except Noah and his Family who found favour with him And God foreseeing that the people of the World would grow so wicked as to deserve a destruction he so fashioned this World as at sixteen hundred years after the Creation it should in an instant fall all to pieces of it self And in this he admires God's great Wisdom but 't is his own invention setting it forth by the comparison of an Artists making a Clock with so rare an invention as not onely to strike at every hour but exactly at the end of a hundred hours it would all of it self fly asunder and break which would be far more admirable faith he than onely to make it so as to strike at each hour But now I pray you observe the rare Invention whereby this was effected This Earth at first you must suppose was a very Paradise but in process of time the Sun with its mighty heat so parched and filled it with chops and chauns which descended very far into the Earth and prepared it for a rupture and so heated the Waters within the Earth as it made them boil and send forth such violent furious vapours that the whole body of the Earty by their strugling to get forth was put into a terrible Earthquake and at length broke out in that raging manner as shattered this lower World to pieces which falling into that gulf of Water underneath great bodies of Earth tumbling down at once into it did so force the Waters up as to mount even to the very Heavens and so down again And by this means the Waters being cast up into the Air in several places one after another as the Earth tumbled down covered the Earth part after part as he supposes and thus made a Deluge for so he would fain have it Is not this a rare Romantick way and far exceeds all that ever hath been written of Sir Amadis de Gaule or the Knight of the Burning Pestle XVI Before I proceed farther I shall make some Remarks upon this his rare Invention First this whole body of the Earth like a vast great Pitcher was heating by the Sun sixteen hundred years together a wonderful thing One would have thought the Sun in six hundred years time or a thousand at most would have tried the uttermost of its strength and have set this Pitcher a boiling I pray you how thick was this Earth that it could heat the Waters under it He supposes a mile at least and yet in the hottest part of the World that we can now find do but make a Vault in the Earth twenty yards deep we shall find the Earth rather cold than hot and 't will yield a refreshment to any one that goes into it And sure our Torrid Zone is as hot as the Temperate Regions were in his fine World How then came his fine Earth to break into so many parts For we find when fumes or vapours are in the Earth and cause an Earthquake by their struggling mightily to get forth as soon as they have made a breach in one place to get out the struggling ceaseth and the Vapours come out in a Whirlwind Hurricane or some such thing And therefore had his Earth broken in some few places towards the Torrid Zone where it was most likely to break being thereabouts much more parched and chopt than in other parts methinks those vapours going forth at liberty his great Pitcher should cease from it boiling fury and the remaining body of the Earth might still have continued its dainty spherical form For certainly those parts under the Torrid Zone and nearit would have been more chopt and made ready for a breach in the first six hundred years than the Northern parts in the whole sixteen hundred especially considering the Earth as he would have it was set in that posture to the Sun and was so unfufferably hot thereabouts as no man living could endure it For so he sets it forth when he comes to treat of Paradise and dividing the World into two Hemispheres by the Torrid Zone and that men could not pass from one to the other by reason of the excessive heat Wherefore as I said it must needs be that this part must break many hundred years before the Northern part and the vapours got out the struggling and breaking of the Earth
should cease But he will say The Water coming out from thence might overflow all the Earth especially there being also great Rains at the same time To this I Answer according to his own Rule in his first Book Chap. 2. That all the Vapours in the upper Region condensed and become solid Water do not make up the hundredth part of what it was before To this he adds another Reason there an Experiment made by a Cubical Vessel set forth to receive the Rain in four and twenty hours the Waters received do not make up an inch and an half and then computes how much Water forty days rain would cause all which he concludes would amount to very little towards the Deluge for which he requires eight Oceans If this were so little as he would have it he must have all the rest from his Sea under the Earth But then he comes upon us with his Romantick flying Rivers as he expresseth it pag. 75. which like the great Dragon in the Apocalyps with their wonderful tails swept away a great part of Mankind Yet the greater part for ought I know might still remain and escape the Deluge For I would ask him how far these flying Rivers could reach We find when a mighty stone dashes into the Water the greatest part of the Water which is raised by it flies upward though some may rise obliquely on either side Let us now consider when two or three Mountains or half a dozen fall into his Gulf at once they might raise the Water oblikely a great way on either side I pray you how far Shall I yield unto him a hundred miles or five hundred miles sure I yield a great way yet this would come very far short of the Northern Poles And thus many men might have escaped the Deluge and been saved from it as well as Noah with his Ark. So that this Deluge would have been but a partial Deluge over a small part of the Earth a thing which he mightily argues against in the first Book of his Theory Chap. 3. for as I shewed before the Earth must needs break in those parts next the Torrid Zone several hundred years before the Northern And thus the greater part of his habitable World would have escaped the Deluge Again I pray you consider what Moses saith of the Flood and this Man urges also upon other occasions when it seems to serve his turn as when he argues against the Creation of new Waters for that would make a sudden rise of Water against which he urges the words of Moses who saith That the Flood increased by degrees till at length it lifted up the Ark above the Earth and carried it upon the face of the Waters and so decreased by degrees but now the case is altered and the Waters must dash up and turnble down on a sudden Is this increasing by degrees forty days or forty hours when the Water could not be four minutes in dashing up and so tumbling down again And thus he doth in several places of his Theory now Pro and then Con. XVII And now comes a thing very admirable He endeavours to screw out the ground of this Romantick Rupture from those few words of Moses The Fountains of the great Deep were broke open Mark you saith he Here Moses first speaks of breaking open From whence he concludes a great breach And of what The Fountains of the great Deep And this great Deep he supposes was all included within the Earth and had no Fountain at all issuing out for he allows no Fountains in his new Earth and therefore by Fountains you must conceive Moses doth not mean such flowing Fountains as we have but the breaking or cleaving the Earth asunder when the Water with the Vapours forced its way out But all this fansie of his is quite spoiled by himself he giving us a Rule and a true one Page 82. That Moses relating unto us the Deluge as an Historiographer ought to use common words and such as may express his meaning to the people to whom he delivered this relation Surely then the people who knew no other Fountains but such as usually we have flowing with Water must needs understand the like unto them and not such Fractions and breaches of the Earth as they never heard of before nor any man ever called Fountains Then he makes another Observation That Moses useth here the word great Abyss mentioned Gen. 1. 2. and not the common word for the Sea But I shall shew him that Moses doth call the same Abyss the Sea For Gen. 1. 9. those Waters which covered the Earth ver 2. were gathered together into one place and ver 10. God called those waters Seas And so we find that the Fountains of the great Deep and the Fountains of the Sea are both one and the same in the first Chapter of Genesis and therefore we in our Earth understand them so Moses calls them Fountains of the great Deep or Fountains of the Sea and by Fountains of the Sea we understand those that run from the Sea which were broken up whether Literally or Metaphoricaly as he pleases that is broken up and enlarged that they might flow in great abundance All this proves nothing to us nor to any man that hath not his head already filled with such a vain fansie as the rupture of the whole Earth But passing over all this let us now consider whether this be the Deluge that Moses meant XVIII He saith the Flood was forty days upon the Earth and the waters increased and bare up the Ark and it was lift up above the earth Here we have an increase of the Waters forty days by the flowing of the Fountains from the great Deep and the Windows of Heaven being opened both in the same day But in his description of the Flood he puts the Rain forty days before any breach of the Earth And when the Earth brake what became of the Ark Moses saith it was born up and lift above the Earth by the Waters prevailing but in his description the Earth must first break under the Ark and so the Ark necessarily must fall along with it into the Waters which were under the Earth And this he would have to be the same with lifting up above the Earth But poor Noah with his Sons and Daughters found it otherwise and surely were mightily amazed to find themselves so much deceived in God's Promise having taken so great pains to make an Ark to save them by swimming upon the Waters yet were now tumbled headlong down Ark and all into the Abyss A rare way of lifting up Then another great part of the Earth falling into the Abyss flounced the Waters up with a mighty force even unto the Heavens and made there as it were a flying River as his own words express it in the end of the sixth Chapter And so one piece of the Earth after another falling down into the Abyss there was such a commotion and tempest raised
I hope may give satisfaction And so we will end this matter of the Deluge though there be many other extravagancies contained in his fanciful way SECTION III. CONTAINS The Fabrick of his New World I. I Have entertained you long enough with the wild and vain fansie of this Man concerning the Deluge that was but a Praeludium to usher in his rare Conceit of a new World which is the Master-piece and very Quintessence of his Philosophy And by this he means to set up a new Sect of Philosophers something like Epicurus and his Atoms but far exceeding him and therefore hopes that his Name will be much more famous than his or any other Philosophers of old and will be a Monument aere perennius more lasting than any brass and a Fabrick far more sumptuous than the men of the old Worlds great Babel which they thought should have continued to future Ages But by God the builders were soon dispersed confounding their Language and scattering them all the World over And 't is much to be feared this Man's Tower may have the like success from God's Word confounding him for he begins his building with a very ominous foundation a Chaos of Confusion and from thence hopes to raise a Monument everlasting which doth not hang well together But he undertakes the work very confidently and as he faith himself makes a bold step into his new World a very bold step indeed for the World that Moses describes Gen. 1. was nothing to it that had onely one spot of delicious ground in it which he called Paradise But the World this Man hath framed is Paradisiacal all over as he termeth it a very Garden of Delight It wants onely one thing There is not a Mountain in all his World to carry you to as the Devil did our Saviour from whence you might have a large prospect of this delicious Land for then doubtless you would fall down and worship him for his admirable contrivance of it II. But before we examine the Fabrick of it self let us confider what motive put our Philosopher upon this rare contrivance and admirable Design why he was much unsatisfied with the misshapen appearance of our present Earth it was so rude and deformed a Mass as it looked like the ruins of some goodly Structure and a confused heap of rubbish rather than the compleat workmanship of a Master-builder consisting of parts so unproportioned here a Mountain there a Valley here vast broken Rocks there smooth and pleasant Plains here great Promontories shooting out into the Sea there the Sea running into the Land in sinus's aud creeks without any order or regularity but lying in a confused manner as happening by chance rather than contrived with any Method or Order Such is the outside of it and the inside also as irregular with dismal Vaults and Caverns such as fright a man to look into it far from affording any pleasure to the beholders and therefore our Philosopher cannot think this to be a piece of workmanship and perfection becoming such a Master-builder as that great God who made the beautiful Heavens with all those Stars and glorious Lights but rather like the broken ruins of his magnificent Building Thus he describes the present Earth But what if it do appear that God was the framer of such a confused heap as he represents this Earth to be Will not then a strange confusion surprise this hasty and rash Philosopher for thus censuring the workmanship of God III. I defire him to give me leave to set forth our Microcosm Man in some such deformed way as he doth the Megacosm or great World I might affirm him to be a most mis-shapen creature also and his Head to be like a Jug or Bottle with the neck turned downwards much deformed in it self one side all rough and hairy the other bald as it were all battered and broken a broad forehead at the top under that two holes dented in for Eyes then a great and hollow Trunk of a Nose standing forth then a gaping mouth filled with bones and a lump of flesh between them with two flaps for lips hanging over then a Chin as it were a great Promontory stands out beyond a small dwindling neck at the bottom whereof stretch forth two mighty overgrown shoulders and at each side of them Arms as small hanging down fastened on as it were with strings to move up and down and at the end of them two Hands ragged and jagged with Fingers down his Back runs a great ridg of Bones with Ribs encompassing his Breast next unto that a great Potbelly with hips and buttocks swelling out far larger than his Wast and all this divided into two Thighs as if some wedges had been driven in to rend his Body from the twist downward And his inside as deformed as his outside his Breast and Belly all hollowed with Caverns and filled with divers disproportioned parts of heart liver lungs guts and panch as if they had been tumbled into him in confused heaps so that a Bears unlick'd whelp is of a far finer smoother and evener shape Yet we believe this misshapen Body was framed by God himself and our Philosopher acknowledges the same Yea we are mightily taken and in love with our own form and although the parts seem thus uneven and disproportioned we greatly commend the beauty of them altogether and much admire the wonderful structure and usefulness of every part as several Physitians and Anatomists have set it forth And so this great body of the Earth taken all together hath a wonderful beauty and admirable structure even in those parts which he sets forth as most disagreeing and deformed The high and rocky Mountains immediately adjoyning to the boundless Seas quite of another nature represent unto us the infinite Power and Majesty of God as he himself speaks Page 39. saying The greatest Objects of Nature are the most pleasing to behold and next to the great Concave of the Heavens and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit there is nothing that I look upon with more pleasure than the wide Sea and Mountains of the Earth there is something August and stately in the Air of of these things that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions We do naturally on such occasions think upon God and his greatness c. Surely he much forgot his fomer thoughts of the rude Earth when he uttered these words for what can be more agreeable with the goodness and greatness of God than to set forth this lower Earth in such a form as may lift up our minds to contemplate that Divine Omnipotent Power which wrought these mighty works such as strike our minds with a pleasing astonishment And surely all men who behold these things have the same delightful contemplation as he acknowledges to have felt when he beheld them and yet we never looked upon them as broken ruined fractions of a former Structure which we poor Souls never dream'd of till his Theory
gave us notice of them And then if we turn our Eyes from the Hills down to the pleasant Valleys below what variety do we there discern of great Plains and Fields chequered with divers colours and adorned with several beautiful Flowers and fruitful Trees All which we are deprived of in his smooth spherical Earth where we find all to be of one even uniform shape without any variety to raise up our minds to the contemplation of God's Greatness and Goodness or to invite us to move a foot from our own Habitation to see the rest of the World all being but one and the same a smooth Earth without any Sea which gives occasion to men of the boldest and noblest Invention that is in the World when in a small Vessel they lanch out into a boundless Ocean many thousands of miles together seeking out new and unknown Countries Really I should grow an extream dull Creature to be confined to such a smooth uniform Habitation and should desire to be transplanted into this misshapen irregular World he finds us in where we have the variety of delightful motions and prospects both by Sea and Land Now if we further consider That from Moses and several other Writers of Scripture it appears that God created this World in that form and fashion as now it is which this Man hath so boldly called Rude and Deformed Will not he as I said before be strangely confounded at this But I shall not at present disorder him in the Fabrick of his new World as he sets it forth in his Theory IV. In the first place he tells us that all originally proceeded from a Chaos and saith All the Antients were of Opinion that such a thing there was from whence the World did arise I desire to know whom he means by those Antients whether Heathens or Christians If Heathens Is he then to learn from them how the World was made Sure all Christians take Moses to be the onely true Historiographer for the Worlds Creation and are no way concerned with the several vain opinions of Heathen Poets or Philosophers but thank God we have a better light to guide us than those Ignes fatui Yet I desire him to tell us whether all the ancient Heathens were of this opinion sure not all but very different among themselves and some said the World was made of Fire some of Water some of Atoms and I know not what some that it was never made but eternal And therefore we shall conclude this Chaos especially in such a manner as he describes it to be an Idea framed out of his own brain and reject it as we do Epicurus's Atoms We desire him then to declare unto us who was the framer of his Chaos for he doth not plainly express whether he thinks his Chaos was the workmanship of God or no or when it had beginning And if he saith that God created it methinks he should have thought such a rude confused Chaos far more improper and unbecoming Gods perfection than this rude World we live in but he finds fault with as unbecoming the perfection of God for God doubtless could as easily have made the Heavens and the Earth in a perfect form as leave them to his Chaos to produce I see he is strangely in love with Nature and Natural Productions and God must produce only a rude fluid Mass and from thence Nature must work it out in her orderly way into delicate Heavens and Earth 5. But where doth he find that God created this Chaos He saith Moses mentions it in his description of the Creation Let us then look into Moses and fee how he relates the framing of this mighty World Moses saith Gen. 1. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the Deep Here we find within the time of one day the Heavens and the Earth and the Waters above the Earth all framed But our Philosopher tells us of a strange Chaos to be in the beginning such a one as came not to the consistency of Earth in many days or rather in many years I know not how many we find not a word in Scripture of any such thing Yes saith he Moses doth affirm such a thing in saying The earth was void and without form If the earth was without form there was then an Earth the first day though without form But this Chaos was a confused mass of several parts intermingled together which came not to the confistency of earth in a long time as I said before so that this is wholly contrary to Moses's description which saith both Heaven and Earth were created the first day firm solid earth and farther tells us how that the earth though rude the first day was clothed with Grass Herbs and Trees the third day which more fully confutes his fluid intermingled mass of all things But let us proceed 6. He tells us Pag. 53. That by the Chaos he understands the matter of the Earth and Heavens without Form or Order intermingled in a fiuid Mass wherein are the materials and ingredients of all Bodies Earth Water Fire Air yea and Oyl also all confused and mixt together And of these were composed the Earth with all its Creatures Fishes Fowls and Beasts I have often heard of four Elements whereof all things are framed but I never heard of this fifth Element of Oyl before which in framing his Earth is the principal for it seems it was composed mainly of that But he saith it was not Oyl but of an Oyly substance as Cream may be said to be of an oyly or unctuous substance and such this fifth Element was for so I must call it it being neither Earth Water Fire nor Air or else it must arise from somewhat else as Cream doth from Milk and so this must arise from one of the four principal Elements And sure it could not arise from Fire or Air they are of too thin a substance to produce such a thick fat and unctuous matter And for Water that is too barren in it self to produce such a creamy substance The Earth likewise is originally a dry heavy and cold substance very unfit to produce it So that I cannot find out whence it should arise And therefore for ought I see it must be a distinct Element of it self But whencesoever it did arise or whatever it be it is a main principle in his mass of which consists the Fabrick of all his new-found Earth So that here we have the ingredients of all sublunary things whatsoever all intermingled and for ought I find in his Theory all above the Moon also for he doth not tell us of what the Heavens with all those glorious Stars Sun Moon and Planets were composed or when Created or whether Nature had a hand in the framing of them from some other kind of fluid Mass. Surely these things were worth his mentioning for Moses in his
relation of the World mentions all particularly and how that the Earth with the great Abyss about it was framed first and some days after that mentions the Creation of Sun Moon Stars c. And therefore it is a strange thing that this being done in the middle of the Creation he frames his World and takes no notice of them when or how they had their being But this is a mystery we must be ignorant of and pass it over in silence However if he thought not sit to meddle with these things yet methinks he might have told us something more plainly of the Creatures below how they were produced And first for Fishes he passeth them over in silence as not sit to be mentioned in his black Sea under the Earth And as for Fowls and Beasts he seems not fully resolved whether they were produced all at one stroke or no as he phrases it that is all at their full growth but seems rather to believe that the Earth of it self spawned them forth in their first Seeds and that in time they grew up to more strength and perfection Here he mentions not 〈◊〉 all Gods command impowering the Earth to produce them that is contrary to his course who will needs have Nature alone act in all things And truly for my part I have not faith enough to believe that his fine fat oyly Earth ever so fat was able to produce Creatures of it self alone And as far as my old head can remember I take it to be against Philosophy also that vegetating power alone can produce Animals and I should wonder much to see a Horse grow out of a Tree or the Earth But let it be his Earth produced Animals If then the Earth naturally of it self produced these various Creatures methinks the same Earth having the same principles of life in it should still have gone on to produce more and more Creatures till at length the whole Earth should be covered by them But I leave him to confider more of this matter VII We will rather hearken to Moses who plainly tells us that both the Earth and the Water produced these Creatures by God's special Command and when his Command ceased their production also ceased And farther tells us God commanded the Sea to produce all sorts of Fishes among others the great Whales Did all these swim up and down in his Sea under the Earth and the great Leviathan take his pastime therein as the Scripture saith He had but a dark place to sport himself in nor any room to spout up the Water into the Air as he hath in our Seas Sure he rejoyced much when this Earth broke and let the Waters go abroad to flow over it but doubtless many of them were knock'd in the Head by those great Mountains of stone falling into his Deep Yet we will let all this pass and be it so that the Fish were all imprisoned in his dark Sea under the Earth But I must needs tell him though he past this over in silence this business of Fishes loudly and fully consutes his Sea under the Earth But we will proceed to Fowls We find ver 20. God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and Fowl that may fly above the earth in the open Firmament of Heaven Were then all the sorts of Fowl under Heaven produced by his Sea shut up under the Earth Truly I can as little believe that Water of it self should produce an Eagle as the Earth a Horse yet we must believe Nature can do all things But if Water naturally produced Fowls at the beginning of his World why should it not go on to produce to this day I have heard indeed that there is in the Sea about the coast of Africk a kind of flying Fishes that are able to raise themselves up a spirt from the Sea but I never met with any Traveller who told us that either Sea Lakes or Rivers produced Eagles Swans Kites or Ravens or any other Fowl The Earth perchance he will say is grown more barren since the Fraction but the Waters sure must be the fatter that fat oily Earth having fallen in to enrich it Besides it hath now the warmth of the Sun to help forwards its production But he will have it otherwise and we must submit Yet I desire him to tell us how the Fowls being produced by his Waters under the Earth how they got out Certainly they could not get out till the Deluge when the Earth brake and let them also fly abroad at liberty his Earth being firmly closed up on every side not one loop-hole to fly out at for he will not allow so much as a Spring in his Earth to arise from the Sea and by this means they must needs have been drowned as soon as they were made having no place to fly abroad under Heaven no nor any space of Air between the Water and his oily substance I believe these things will make any serious man stumble much at his Theory And I desire him to consider that men will expect to be satisfied in these great seeming absurdities VIII In the mean time we will proceed to examine his fluid Mass in it self without any relation to the Animals before-mentioned and how the parts divided themselves and by degrees separated one from another till at length the heavier sinking downwards and the lighter mounting upwards it settled in all these distinct bodies of Earth Water Oil Air Fire and the Heavens above which he never told us yet what they were made of therefore we go no farther than Fire And when all these were distinct then this oily substance to settle concrete and harden and make up a new-fashioned Earth I desire him to tell me how many years this was in doing We find a Tun of new Wine having a great deal of foul and heavy lees in it mingled with the body of the Wine requires two or three months time to settle in How much time then would it require for such a vast Vessel as the wide circumference from the uttermost Circle under the Moon round about the World to the very Centre which is many thousand miles I say for such a Vessel full of his fluid Mass to divide it self and settle in I leave him to consider the time I am not concerned in it But I think I may securely affirm it could not settle in one two or three or thirty months time much less in one two or three days time in which Moses relates the Heavens and Earth with the Sea to be framed and the Earth to be clothed with Grass Herbs and Trees And therefore were there nothing else different in his Production from Moses's Creation this alone would make a believing Christian throw his Theory aside Moses so plainly telling us God created the Heavens and the Earth part dry Land which he called Earth and the gathering together of the Waters he called Seas IX But we will go on with his