that is as containing a kind of tangible thickness and clamminess in it Yet in the first day upon GOD's most powerful â—iat given there was light Gen. 1. 3. Which plainly argues That the Body of the Air could not then be of so foul a Constitution If it had though GOD when he pronounced Let there be light had made the Sun which he did not and made him much brighter than he is he could not have illightned these lower Regions as being not only clouded and covered but even stuffed as it were with an impenetrable density or kind of material darkness so far as the aforesaid Ring of Circle about the Chaos reached But then how much less could that Light have done it which was pre-existent to the sun and was no more than a faint glimmering in compare with his Glory Yet on the first day I say there was Light in the Chaotic World even on the very Waters of the Chaos For when GOD said Let there be light where can that Light be thought to have shined more especially than where he said before there was darkness And where was darkness said to be before but upon the face of the deep Gen. 1. 2. And therefore Light must be shot down thither in obedience to the Divine Command But then here again this Hypothesis seems to be unwarrantable as grating too much upon Holy Scripture For whereas that certifies That there was Light on the first day and upon the superficies of the Abyss as the Context intimates this Hypothesis puts nature into such a condition as made it impossible it should be so and positively avers That it was quite contrary For it tells us The Air was as yet thick gross and dark And when was it thus Why most certainly after the first day was past For it was after that the immense Aereal Mass had had time to purifie it self in a great measure as appears by what follows There being abundance of little Particles swimming in it still after the grossest were sunk down And if the Air were thick and dark then after the grossest Particles were sunk down what was it before when they were but sinking And therefore as the first darkness at the World's Formation is acknowledged to proceed ex ipsius Aeris impuritate perturbatione from the impurity and roil of the Air so the Theory calls it by the name of Tenebrae diuturnae lasting darkness CHAP. IV. 1. A Third Exception against the Formation of the Earth the Fire at the Center of it 2. The Theory faulty in not setting forth the Beginning of the Chaos which was necessary to be done 3. Such a Chaos was not Created 4. Nor yet produced in Des-Cartes his way 5. And therefore that Central Fire seems a thing unreasonable 6. That the Chaos was produced in the Cartesian way not to be allowed by the Theory 7. The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also insinuates the contrary 8. The Septuagint cleared in one passage 9. The Story of the Creation not to be restrained to the Terrestrial World 1. THAT the Earth is not the solidest of the Planets may well be inferred from its nearness to the Sun And therefore we see Mars a less Planet by much advanced above the Earth upon the account of his solidity And for the same reason he may be of such a rutilant or â—iery colour as he is which Complexion among the Hebrews gives him the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the red Planet But though that degree of Proximity which the Earth holds to the Sun shows her to be of a looser substance of a more porous and less solid nature yet it cannot presently be improved into an Argument of her having a great quantity of Fire at her Center This the Theorist admits of as a thing very reasonable that there is a Fire at the Center of the Earth as there is a Yolk in the middle of an Egg. But how can it be so reasonable according to his Hypothesis For according to that the Earth was formed out of a Chaos as we have heard And that Chaos was nothing but a fluid Mass consisting of earthly Principles as is intimated in these words By the Chaos I understand the matter of the Earth and Heavens without form or order reduced into a fluid Mass wherein are the materials and ingredients of all Bodies Suppose then the Elements Air Water and Earth which are the principles of all terrestrial Bodies mingled without any order c. Now when the Chaos was a confused Mass in its principles so wholly terrestrial and in its constitution so wholly fluid it is so far from being very reasonble to allow a Fire at the Center of it and if there were not a Fire at the Center of that how could there be one at the Center of the Earth that it would rather be very absurd to do it For so in the First place very contrary and discordant natures must have been tied to dwell together in the closest cohabitation or a perfect contiguity In which state of conjunction or immediate vicinity how could they have subsisted without preying upon and destroying one another Either the Fire would have dissipated the ambient fluid Bodies that were near it or else those fluid humid Bodies would have suffocated and extinguish'd the Fire they inclosed Or if they could have dwelt together peaceably for a while and not have invaded one another Yet Secondly When the Chaos began to separate and the grossest parts of it to sink down those that subsided first it being a fluid Mass must have met at the very Center of it and the rest as they followed would have gathered close about them and so constituting a central Globe of Earth solid throughout would have left no hollow space within it for a receptacle of Fire Or Lastly If there had been room left for Fire at the Center of the chaos yet how should Fire have conveyed it self into that place of reception or by any means have come to dwell there 2. To make this out it was necessary that the Beginning of the Chaos or the way of its entring into the World should have been declared by the Theory But it is not done which seems to be a king of flaw in the Hypothesis It takes no notice of the cause of its Origin nor of the manner of its Production whereby this difficulty might have been prevented or cleared up And truly the way or manner of its rise or emergency into being is necessary to be known for the explaining of other difficulties as well as this For upon it depends the solution of several Phaenomena's and very material ones I name but one The Magnetism of the Earth as to the influence it has upon the Index nauticus or Needle of the Mariner's Compass the pointing or Direction of which is not so curious and surprizing but it is a useful in the affairs of human Life But then if the Theorist by setting his
Chaos which came from we know not whence in the room of an Earth of a Planetary Origin sunk down from its lucid or Sidereous state takes away the supposed causes of this notable effect it will be incumbent on him to assign others from whence it may be derived In case it be objected that the Phaenomâ—non alledged is not satisfactorily accounted for in the Cartesian way neither forasmuch as it stumbles in the formation of the Striate Particles the main instrument of the work and that Des-Cartes himself dares not trust his own Hypothesis but professes the Earth to have been otherwise produced than that determines as shall be noted by and by then I answer As this is really nothing to us so it will not excuse the Theorist in the least from clearing up the thing according to those measures he hath taken by himself It only shows that the French Philosophy of so great fame is too short to fathom the deeps of Nature and by no means quick-sighted enough to see to the bottom of her profound Mysteries Though that Philosophy may grow up apace to so happy a perfection as to be able to make a more full discovery of such secrets must needs be the desire of wife and good Men. And so we return to the Enquiry we were upon viz. How Fire should come to the Center of the Earth Which is a Problem the more intricate and perplexed in regard The Theory takes no notice of the beginning of the Chaos It tells indeed that there was a Chaos and what kind of one it was but it gives no manner of account how it came into Being As to that the Reader is left at a loss and has nothing to guide him but his own Conjectures I shall guess therefore as fairly at the thing as I can And to me it seems probable that this Chaos should be produced one of these Two ways either by Creation or by Des-Cartes his way for generating Planets Thought it will not be over easie to make out That it came into existence by either of them 3. For first to affirm that it dropt directly out of the hand of Omnipotence in way of Creation is more than we find warranted Yea we are taught something and that from Heaven which is very different from it Namely That in the beginning GOD created the EARTH And if it was and Earth that he created in the beginning it could not be a Chaos I mean Such a Chaos as the Theory makes it for that was no Earth nor had it any specific or distinct Earth in it as being without distinction of Elements It is said indeed Gen. 1. 2. That the Earth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolation and emptiness Inanis vacua as the Vulgar doubly void That is of its designed order and comeliness which were to beautifie it and of all those creatures which were to furnish it and dwell in it And therefore says the Targum of Ierusalem it was empty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Children of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and void of every brute And the Prophet describing a most fearful destruction to come upon his People by Wars through which their fruitful Land was to become a Wilderness and Men and Birds were to be driven away tells us in the very Words of Moses That the Earth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolation and emptiness And in this sense I confess the Earth in its original imperfection and nakedness was a Chaos an incultivate and uninhabited lump rude and confused beyond all imagination as having neither good from nor furniture in it But then at the same time it was an Earth too and so not such a Chaos as the Theory speaks it I might also note would that be of weight that the Praefix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Genesis 1. 1. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notificationis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scientific or demonstrative and so it points at this Earth and intimates it was this very same Earth at first that it is now The same as to substance and nature though not as to condition and ornaments And this Earth in the state of its primitive disorder and destitution being the true Mosaic Chaos created in the beginning we have no grounds to belive that any other besides it was ever brought forth in way of creation But we have good grounds to believe that no other was so produced inasmuch as to assert it would be to set up Phantasie against Moses's authority and to bring presumptuous conceiâ— into competition with Scripture But grant the Chaos to have been such as it is supposed to be and that it entred into the World at the door of Creation Yet here will be nothing to make it reasonable very reasonable to admit Fire at its Center For if there was a central Fire in it it must either be placed there supernaturally by the immediate power of the ALMIGHTY and we have no reason to admit it upon that score because we are no where informed of it Or else it must be generated there in a Natural way and to admit that would be against reason too For how could a vast quantity of Flame be bred in the Bowels of an Earthy Mass consisting of the Principles of all terrestrial Bodies And whoever shall peruse the first half of the Fifth Chapter of the English Theory will soon be satisfied that the Chaos could consist of no other but terrestrial Principles For there it appears that it was resolved into nothing but Earth Air Water and an unctious substance and so could be made up of nothing else But Fire is quite another thing and as different from those Elements as motion is from rest or the most Celestial from the most Terrestrial Matter and so in a course of Nature could not possibly issue from them and settle it self in the midst of them 4. We will pass therefore to the Second Conjecture whither indeed the Notion of central Fire in the Earth does most directly lead us and that is Des-Cartes's Method by which he supposeth Planets to be formed And according to that the Earth was one of those fourteen or fifteen Stars which once shined gloriously in their respective Heavens hereabouts But being all overgrown and incrusted with Maculaes except one and losing their native strength and light were swallowed up by the Vortex of the surviving Luminary the Sun and so move round about him as so many Satellites or Waiters of his to this day Though some of these Planets also that is Secundary ones are at the same time carried about others of them As the Moon about the Earth the four Medicean ones about Iupiter and Saturn's three Asseclae or Pages according to Cassinus about him And here there may seem to be a plausible account given of the declared Central constitution of the Earth or of a Region of Fire at the heart of it For it having been all Flame
condensed turns to Water And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Air being condensed may be compressed into Water And then brings in Heraclitus affirming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Destruction of Air to be the generation of Water To this also the Lord Verulam consents offering to make it good by sundry Experiments Though all of them I think come short of Demonstration or of a clear and satisfactory proof of the Phaenomenon And to name the two greatest Philosophers next Aristotle asserts this transmutation in his Book de Mundo And Des-Cartes subscribes to it as possible and real When those Globules move a little slower than ordinary they may change Water into Ice and the Particles of Air into Water And the Famous and Honourable Mr. Boyle in his 22. Experiment leaves it undetermin'd whether or no Air be a primigenial Body that cannot now be generated and turned into Water And truly as Clavius his Glass of Spring-water mentioned in that Experiment Hermetically sealed up for fifty Years past and reposited in the Musaeum Kercherianum does not prove that Water can't be turn'd into Air because the Water continu'd there so long without diminution so neither will M. Rohault's Glass seal'd up the same way full of Air and kept in a Vessel of Water in a Wine-Cellar three whole Years argue that Air can't be turn'd into Water because none of that Air at the three Years end was found to have suffered such a change there being not the least drop of Water in the Glass We only learn from hence that we have not yet attain'd to the right Operation of changing these Elements into one another We will grant therefore that by the power of Nature Air may be turned into Water Yet neither will that take off the whole Difficulty in this Case For if most of the Air incircling the Earth had been thus changed and all of it could not because then respiration would have been impossible to Mankind and the surviving Animals in the Ark it could not have furnisht Water enough for the Flood a great deal of Air going to make up a little quantity of Water Which the proportion of gravity betwixt Water and Air of equal bulk it being found to be as of a thousand to one does sufficiently evince But in case it could have yielded Water enough yet inconveniences would still have remained Particularly it would have endangered sucking down the Moon as the Theorist observes The changing also of one great Body into another which after transmutation takes up so much less room than it did before does either suppose that the whole Frame of the World must sink closer together which would occasion a strange discomposure in it to fill up the space that Change would make empty or that in Nature there must be a Vacuum Though by the way when our SAVIOUR multiplied Bread upon Earth that need have no such influence on the World either as to expansion or contraction of it as the new Creation of Waters above mentioned or this production of them by transmutation does imply For besides that the Matter changed was much less in quantity the change might be made in such a Substance as did take up just the same room in the World before its mutation as after it Fig 4 Pag 317 Nor need we trouble our selves in the Sixth place about Sub-terrestrial Waters Which if never so free passages had been opened for them could no more have flowed up out of the Bowels of the Earth than Waters can do out of our deepest Wells Yea with much more difficulty they must have ascended in regard they were far deeper in the ground and also must have boiled up against the weight and pressure of the incumbent Flood even then when perhaps it was a Mile or two high As for Blood flowing out of a Vein when prickt in a Man's Head it is nothing like a Proof that Water may rise and flow above its source For there is a vital strength and motion forcing it out and Nature conspires as much to help the Course of that Blood as she does to hinder this Course of the Waters we speak of Engines it may be in the heart of the Earth might be able to send up Waters on to the surface of it as the Heart in the midst of the Body sends Blood to its Extremities But we hear of no Engines made to raise the Flood Nor need we in the Last place to betake our selves to a Topical or Partial Deluge A thing which some have done meerly to avoid the necessity of such a vast deal of Water as they knew not where to have for a general Flood according to the rate of the old Hypothesis or in case they could have had it knew not how to get rid of it again Whereas let fifteen Cubits above the Earth be the highest Water-mark of the Flood and then as the Clouds and Caverns would have yielded Water enough to raise it so when its work was done the quantity of this Water would not have been so excessive but it might easily be dried up in that space of time in which Moses declares it was so And this is that which in the Second place gives countenance to our Hypothesis It makes the Flood to be such as Nature out of her Store-houses could very well send on to the Earth and when she had done as conveniently take it off again And so we are excused from running to those Causes or Methods which seem unreasonable to some and unintelligible to others and unsatisfactory to most 6. A Third thing which gives credit to our Conjecture and makes it look like truth is its agreeing so handsomely with St. Peter's Description of the Deluge 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 2 Pet. 3. 5 6. How exactly does this suite with the Hypothesis proposed For according to it the Earth stood partly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Water the most of it being overflowed and in such a measure as that the Animal World thereby perished And yet a great part of the Earth as much as the upper parts of high Mountains come to was standing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Water at the same time Yea if a Zeugma in the words makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing relate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heavens as well as to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth yet our Explication of the Deluge will fall in very fairly with that too Inasmuch as the Heavens stood then in the Water and out of the Water as well as the Earth For their Territories were then invaded in some measure the Water rising where it incroached least fifteen in most places it may be thirty forty or fifty Cubits into them And therefore so high they were standing in the Water as all above was standing out of the
he returneth to his Earth According to which where it is said That the Waters returned from off the Earth continually we are to understand their continual version or return into that Principle out of which they were made namely Vapours And the same is to be understood concerning them where it is said Gen. 8. 5. That the waters decreased continually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were going and decreasing And so the Expression does not denote a violent motion or agitation of those Waters as hath commonly been thought so much as a constant wasting or diminution of them by going quite away And indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies it went away and as Schindler notes is spoken de rebus evanescentibus of things that are vanishing Yea the learned Lexicographer brings in this very Passage as one instance of that its signification Which farther insinuates That when the Waters of the Flood decreased it was done by their vanishing or going away into their first natural Principle by their returning or being converted into Vapours Now this being done at a great rate or very fast as we may gather from so much Water being dried up in so short a time and from the miraculous Wind Gen. 8. 1. sent on purpose to hasten the work by helping forward the attenuation of the liquid Element it must in likelihood overcast and bemist the Air and so conspissate and obscure it as to render things invisible at a little distance from the beholder's Eye Whence it will follow That when the tops of the Mountains were seen this might come to pass not by the Waters sinking below those tops whither they never ascended but by the clearing up of the Sky and the wearing off of its unusual thickness and fogginess And yet this their visibility or new appearance might properly be ascrib'd to the decrease of the Waters too inasmuch as till they were so diminisht as not to afford Vapours enough to thicken and darken the Air any longer at the rate they had done the Mountains tops could not be seen Should it here be objected That according to this way of explaining their appearance they could not have been seen so soon as in the tenth Month because the Waters were then upon the Earth in great abundance that Objection might be thus taken off Though there were waters upon the face of the whole earth then yea and forty days after that which was the reason why Noah's Dove could find no rest yet these Waters were so far exhaled drawn so low and grown so gross and muddy that now they did not return or go away into vapours half so fast as before The Atmosphaere also was now come pretty well to its old consistency again and so the attractive power of the Sun was much damped and weakened and he did not draw vapours so briskly and plentifully as he had done And yet the lower Regions of the Air might be very thick and foggy still so that the Mountains might not be seen by looking right on but rather by looking upward And so the highest parts of the Mountains that by thrusting up aloft did intercept the lightsomeness of the glimmering Skie and terminate the eye-sight might by that means be discerned And therefore indeed only the tops of them were said to be seen Nor let it be thought a meer phancy a whimsical groundless Figment of ours that the Waters of the Deluge did decrease in this manner I mean by going or returning into Vapours and that at such a rate as to fill the Air for a time with constant Mists and make it very caliginous and dark This is so far from being an empty fiction or conceit that I may venture to say It was a necessary Phaenomenon For when the Earth was so generally drown'd the Water being of a smooth Superficies if the Air had been clear yea if it had not been more than ordinarily thick it would certainly have been most exceeding cold Even as cold as it is now in its middle Region where Icy Meteors are continually floating So that in the Natural Course of things the Waters of the Flood would presently have been frozen extreamly hard And if we can suppose they should ever have been melted again as by the force of meer Nature they hardly could yet they could not have been so in that space of time wherein the Deluge went off and the Earth became dry And that a vehement Frost would have seiz'd the Waters of the Flood as soon as they were come down if the Air had not been strangely thick is but reasonable to conclude upon this account Because the Atmosphaere was never so exhausted of Vapours and so never so thin and so never so sharp and terribly cold since the World began as it was at that time And then lastly that the closeness and thickness of the Air was such as to darken and benight the whole Earth at once may fairly be inferred from Gen. 8. ult For there GOD promiseth that while the Earth remaineth there shall be day as will as seed-time and harvest Implying That during the Flood there was as perfect an intermission of day upon Earth as there was of seed-time and harvest 6. A Fourth Objection may be framed from the Possibility and easiness of Mens escaping the Flood For if the Waters prevailed but fifteen Cubits upwards upon the Plain of the Earth and the tops of the spacious aspiring Mountains stood bare excepting a little of the lower parts of them all the time of the Deluge how easily might Men have run up those Mountains and so have been saved from the violence of the Waters and then what need of an Ark to preserve them To this it may be answered For People to ascend these high Mountains when the Flood was coming in could be no such easie matter For at what rate soever the Rains descended in other places it is not to be doubted but they fell in great abundance about the lofty Mountains For the pitchy swollen loaden Clouds which then hung every where bagging in the Air driving and crouding and squeezing against those Mountains could not but empty themselves there like full Spunges when pressed or nipped in prodigious Showres that would have run down in furious and mighty Torrents Yea 't is more than probable that these squeezed Clouds would not only have discharged themselves in immoderate Showres thereabouts but in kind of Ecnephiae or Exhydyriae such as sometimes fall in the Pacific Ocean very terrible Tempests wherein Rain pours down as it were out of Spouts or Buckets and falls in whole Sheets of Water at once So that the sides of the Hills would have been full of Cataracts and the Waters would have come roaring and gulling down them so forcibly that no living Creatures would have been able to stand much less to climb up against them And then the higher sort of Mountains as the Alpes and the like being covered with huge quantities of Snow that
fail to drive it out from thence But then as to the Way of the Earth's Formation we are more at a Loss as being not so satisfactorily instructed concerning it Here Providence seems to have left us to our selves and for the improvement of both remits us to the Conduct of Philosophick Learning in some measure and to our own Judgments Only we must be careful that the Idea's we frame be congruous to the Truths that came down from above and are or should be the Touchstone of all Hypotheses among Christians Which because the way of the Earth's Formation according to the Theory is not it overthrows the first vital Assertion which is this There was a Primitive Earth of another Form from the present and inhabited by Mankind till the Deluge The latter Clause of it touching the Earth's being inhabited till the Deluge we do not question The former part of it cannot stand by reason the Manner of the Earth's Rise which the Theory ascribes to it overturns it It is supposed to have proceeded thus Fig 1 Pag 47 Where 1 denotes the fiery Centre of the Earth 2. The Interior Orb of the Earth composed of the grossest particles of the Chaos 3. The Element of Water or the Abyss 4. The Oyly Liquor upon the surface of the Water 5. The Mass or Body of the Air. But this Body of the Air being at first very muddy and impure through abundance of terrestrial Particles that as fast as they could free themselves from the Air with which they were mingled and in which they were intangled they sunk downward And meeting in their descent with the Oyly Liquor on the face of the Deep there they stuck and incorporating with that unctious Substance made a certain Slime or a fat soft light Earth spread upon the Waters Which growing thicker and thicker by a continual accession of more terrestrial Particles sliding down still out of the Air as it purify'd it self at last it came to its just Dimensions And then waxing more dry and stiff and firm and solid in fine it attained to its due Consistency and so became the First habitable Earth Thus have I briefly but I hope truly represented the Manner of the Primitive Earth's Formation If there be any thing of Mistake in the Description it is altogether involuntary But I think I have spoken the very mind of the Hypothesis as it is more largely set down by the Theorist 2. But if the Primitive Earth's being of another Form does depend upon its rising in such a method as this as indeed it does then it could not be of another Form from the present Earth because it could not rise in such a manner for several Reasons As First Because it would have taken too long time in doing it A longer time by much than that Divine Account we have of its Origination does mention or will allow For to say nothing how long the Inferior Earth would have been in forming by the subsiding of the grossest parts of the Chaos to the Centre of it till which were sunk the other Sedimentals could not so well have separated And to say nothing how considerable a space of time it would have required for the Aereal Matter to have clarify'd it self and to have setled in its proper Region And to say nothing of the Lastingness of that other Purgation whereby the liquid part of the Chaos would have sent forth its Oyliness to invest the Waters to receive those Dregs that fell out of the Air To say nothing of these how much time must have been spent in producing the exterior Orb of the Earth which was to be made up of those terrestrial Particles which fell from above and rested upon the Oyly out-side of the Deep Should these fine Particles have showred down as fast as ever we saw small Rain or Snow do yet how many Days and Weeks must have passed before they could have swell'd into so huge a Body as the Earth was at first I say as the Earth was at first For according to the Hypothesis now before us the Primitive Earth was bigger than this So much bigger as to take all that space into its Ambit which reacheth up to the tops of the highest Mountains at least Yea if the first Earth did not fill a much bigger space than that as it might do for according to this Hypothesis we know not how far its Circumference might extend yet a space somewhat bigger it must needs occupy in regard the Mountains are now worn lower than they were And for such inconceivable Quantities of little Particles to descend out of the Air as would be sufficient to make such a bulky Globe as the Primitive Earth must necessarily be a good whiles work And so it is expresly acknowledged to be Theor. p. 58 59. And then if as fast as they showred down into the Oyly Substance they did immediately mix and incorporate with it yet then it would take up some time again to dry and harden this new made Earth and to reduce it to an habitable Consistency And therefore its Formation this way could by no means fall in with the real time of its Production Nay it could not be compleated in that space of time in which GOD declares that he began and finisht the whole Creation 3. For that glorious Work is expresly limited to Six Days And every Day has its respective Task particularly specified and appropriated to it And however more might be created on some Days than is mentioned as Angels Hell c. yet we may be sure there was no less Not but that GOD could have done all in one Day if he had so pleased or in one Hour or Minute As he could also have given Being to the World many millions of Ages before He did But it was not his Will that it should exist sooner and his Will it was that the Creation of it should be protracted to an Hexaemeron or Six Days Work and therefore he drew it out to that length But then when Philo Iudaeus St. Austin and others teach that the World was created in an Instant we have no reason jurare in verba to give up our selves to a Belief of their Doctrine Nor is the Saying of the Son of Syrach sometimes alleged in Proof of the Opinion to be at all regarded He that liveth for ever creavit omnia simul created all things together As if he created them together in the same moment Whereas besides that the Book is Apocryphal the Greek Copy reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He created all things in common as well one as other in which sense it relates to no time And accordingly our English is most proper he created all things in general Yet this Apocryphal Text seems to be the chief ground upon which St. Austin built his Opinion of the World 's being made in an instant But by that Account which Moses gives in the Earth brought forth Grass and Herbs and Trees
come down so fast and in so great abundance as easily to have overpowered the thin Oily Scum on which they fell and being a little soaked in it and incorporate with it have weighed it down in Flakes to the bottom of the Waters upon the top of which it could no longer float as being overloaded with the heaviness of the imbodied Earth And truly the flowing of the Waters with a strong head now this way and their returning by and by with as much force the contrary way must needs put them into such restless agitations and cross commotions as would have much promoted the diving of the Flakes aforesaid Nor are we to measure the motion of the Chaotic Waters from the present great Seas For however they may be less discomposed by Tides yet nature then was in other circumstances according to the Theory than it is now and those Waters might be moved at another rate than these are For our present Earth was at that time all dispersed in the Air. And the thicker and fuller the Air was the stronger pressure would the Moon make upon that and that again upon the Superficies of the Waters and consequently the higher must the Tides rise and the more violent must they be And then the Theory makes another motion in the Chaotick Waters necessary namely A Defluxion of them from the Aequator towards the Sides or Poles of the liquid Globe in order to the forming it and consequently the Earth to be raised on it into an Oval Figure And this motion might create a new disturbance in that Element Yea not only so but it might moreover be fatal to the rise of the Earth For the watry Globe was to grow oblong by the slowing down of the Waters to the sides they are the words of the Theory and the disburthening the middle parts about the Aequator But then when these Waters did thus recede or discharge themselves from about the Aequator or middle of the Globe and flow down to the sides of it how easily might the Oily Matter have followed their course Yea perhaps how necessary was it for it to do so While the uppermost Waters thereabouts being most hurried and most at liberty would have fallen back and carried that away with them But then if the upper Waters thus drew off and the Oily substance slid away upon them what foundation could the Earth have had in those middle parts we speak of Especially if these Waters continued their course for any time as it was needful they should to bring about the effect mentioned For so vast a body of Waters as that of the Abyss could not by this means of a perfectly round be made into an oval or oblong Figure on a sudden 3. But in reference to this matter there is a Douâ—t made by the Theorist which must be considered and removed Otherwise most of what has been said touching the instability and fluctuation of these Waters will be vain and groundless The Doubt is Whether the Moon were then in our neighbourhood And truly I had almost said he might next have questioned whether the Sun were then in our Heaven there being in the Story of the Creation no better evidence for the one than for the other I confess the suggestion as wild as it is would have done the Arcadians a great kindness For they used to boast of what was always a Riddle and nonsense to the Wife their being more ancient than Iupiter and the Moon So says Ovid Ante Jovem Genitum Terras habuisse feruntur Arcades Lunâ Gens prior illa fuit But the service it might have done them as to this arrogant brag will by no means countervail that dammage which it does to the person who raises the Doubt For it involves him in the guilt of unhappy temerity towards the Holy Writings Yet the Theorist does not only start this Scruple but argues for it thus Her presence seems to have been less needful when there were no long Winter-nights nor the great Pool of the Sea to move or govern Too bold an affront to Scripture That says expresly That GOD made TWO great Lights and both upon the Fourth Day Gen. 1. 16. The Theorist suspects he made but One. And truly let him but allow Two to be made and the Moon of necessity must be come into our Neighbourhood because she alone could be a Great light in the neighbouring Heaven to make up the Sun Two There is no bringing any Star into the Number For though the smallest of them be a truer and greater Light than the Moon yet no one of them was ever a great Light in this lower World and GOD created more than Two such Besides Scripture says That when GOD made two great Lights he set them both of them both of them then on the same day in the Firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth And must not both of them then be in our neighbourhood at that time And lastly It says That as GOD made the greater of these Lights to rule the Day so he made the lesser to rule the Night And when did the lesser begin to rule the Night Why just when the greater began to rule the Day For as to the Dates of those their respective Offices we find no difference Yet the Theorist declares That the presence of the Moon and consequently her rule then was not so needful because there were no long Winter-nights Whereas the Moon was no more made to shine only in long Winter-nights than the Sun was to shine only in long Summer-days And which is more as there were no long Winter-nights then so there were no short Summer ones neither So that set but the one against the other and the presence of the Moon may seem to have been as needful then in regard of the length of Nights as it is now Upon the whole matter therefore there are no good grounds for this piece of Scepticism And to what has been said concerning it we need add but this Whereas it is argued that there might be no Moon upon the account that there were no long Winter-nights nor great Pool of the Sea to move or govern we being assured that there was a Moon may much better invert the reason and retorting the force of the Argument conclude that there must be long Winter-nights and the great Pool of the Sea because that Planet was present to rule the one and also to move or govern the other Though Possibly the shutting her out of our neighbourhood might be warily done and with prospect of her malignant influence in the case before us namely That she might not incommode or hinder the rearing of the Earth upon the Waters of the Chaos For truly had she been so near a Neighbour at first as she is now she might have been an injurious one as to that Affair She might have kept those Waters in such Motions as would have dissipated their Oily Covering
and so have put by the Primitive Earth by marring the Basis whereon it should have stood Yet when all is said I would have this Exception lookt upon as propounded in way of Quaery Whether the unsettledness of the Chaotic Waters would not have hindred the Production of the first Earth rather than as a positively assertory Objection as if it must necessarily have done it 4. And here I cannot but remark the exceeding precariousness of the Theorist's Hypothesis in reference to the Chaos and the Formation of the Earth out of it For that that Mass which consisted of and was then first dissolved into the simplest elementary Bodies in the World should cast forth one Body I mean Liquor which in its purest na-natural state could contain so much Oiliness in it That this Oily matter should rise just when it did so as to be sit to receive the Earthly Particles in their fall out of the Air whereas had they come down sooner they had been drowned in the Water That this Oiliness should be of just such a quantity as was sufficient for use just enough that is to mix with those Particles and to make them into a good Soil whereas if it had been more it would have overflowed them and made the Earth useless as a greazy clod if less it would not have imbib'd them but they must have lien loose above in a fine and dry powder that would have rendred the Earth barren as an heap of Dust. That the Waters also should be of a due Proportion just sufficient that is to make a temporary Deluge and then to retire into the Deep and make a durable Sea whereas had there been much less the Earth upon its Disruption could not have been drowned and had there been much more it must have been quite swallowed up for ever That all these things should be thus is altogether precarious and not to be admitted but upon better evidence than on their behalf is given in For here any one will be of the Theorist's Judgment as he has declared it That things of moment such as he treats of are not to stand upon weak and tottering dubious and conjectural Grounds but to be founded upon SOME CLEAR AND INVINCIBLE EVIDENCE But then he who talks at this rate ought when he writes of such momentous things to make them out very clearly and evidently Else by what he says more in the same paragraph he proclaims himself guilty of a rash attempt even of tampering where he ought not to meddle and of striving to enter at that Door where GOD and Nature have both agreed to shut him out For did they think good to let him in it should be by such a way as is certain he tells us and wherein he should walk with the aforesaid evidence on his side Now this I say being his declared Judgment the Phaenomena's above-mentioned should have been more fully explained and made out and also more throughly confirmed and made good 5. But besides those there is another behind which if lookt into will not only be found as Precarious as any of the rest but also Vnphilosophical And that is The descent of the Terrestrial Particles out of the Air which constituted the Praediluvian Earth For of those particles the Theory will have that Earth to be made Which were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or kind of excrementitious Sediment that the Body of the Air threw out when it purified it self But that such a prodigious quantity of gross and feculent substance should then lodge in that part of the Chaos which was so light and volatile at the same time as to mount above other Bodies and also keep it self upon the wing and play in open places might justly be questioned For if such a vast deal of drossy stuff were mixed with the Aereal matter then whatever natural disposition through levity it might have to mount up that one would think should have so pinioned its Wings as to have kept it down at least from rising very high and have been so heavy a clog upon it as to have spoiled its playing in open places at least its playing up so far as the Moon Yet that the Theory allows it to have done so is evident For it supposeth them to have showred down not only from the middle Regions but from the whole capacity or extent of those vast spaces betwixt the Moon and us A supposition that is not only precarious but also seems I say to be somewhat Vnphilosophical For though upon the Theory's account it was necessary these Particles should fill such vast spaces that so the Air might be able to contain enough of them and also have room enough wherein to move and by motion to purge it self and cast them out yet how will the Phaenomenon fall in with a smooth Philosophic Explication For in short either the Bounds of the Chaos and the Sphaere of its gravity as I may call it did extend as high as the Moon or they did not If they did not how came these Particles there Especially in such plenty as to descend from thence in showers Yea how could they come down at all Let Philosophy make it out In case the Bounds of the Chaos and the Sphere of its gravity did reach so high as the Moon then why did not she come tumbling down with those Particles or rather sooner than they as being much heavier Let Philosophy give an account of that For I think we have proved she was then in our neighbourhood though it seems there might be more reason for that Doubt than we were at first aware of 6. And as this Assertion is not very consistent with Philosophy in it self so in the Consequence of it it is against Scripture That assures us That Light was the Product of the first day And as it was made then so it was made visible in these inferiour Regions But this could not be in case the Earth were formed according to The Theory the Air would have been so full of terrestrial Dregs For it then contained enough of such Dregs to compose an Earthly Orb of above one and twenty Thousand Miles in Perimeter and of a depth or thickness we know not how great And such unspeakable measures of Earth in the Air must needs fill it with darkness yea with such a spissitude and opacity as would utterly have spoiled the Pellucidness of it for a considerable height above the Chaos at least For the coarsest and heaviest of the floating Particles setling continually towards the Chaos and the nearer they approached it drawing still into a narrower compass by reason the spaces out of which they descended were much larger than those into which they gathered the mighty throng of them they being crowded together as close as their gravity could squeez them in their fall would have made a Ring of such darkness about the Chaos as would have been like to that which once plagued Egypt It would have been palpable
naked and imperfect Seminals through the several Stages of an incompleat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Birth till they arrive at animation and maturity But then this implys that the First Fishes came into being by an extraordinary way and could not be produced as they are now because there were none before them none to propagate them by casting forth such spermatic Principles The aboriginal ones as I may call them for this very reason must be made by GOD's immediate hand Though whether he made them out of nothing or out of watry Materials is all one as to our purpose For either way it was absolutely necessary that Rivers should be extant as well as they that so they might be in a readiness to receive them But now according to the Hypothesis under consideration the Fishes of the two must exist first if the Creation as I hope we have proved were perfected in Six Days For they were made upon the Fifth Day says Moses and how could there be Rivers so timely according to this new contrivance The Sun it self was created but just the day before And so what a work must here be done to make Rivers coetaneous with the Fish we speak of The beams of the Sun must have pierced into the Earth and that so deep as to have reached the Abyss And from thence plenty of Vapours must have been exhal'd into the Air. And these Vapours being upon the wing must have taken their flight as far as the Polar Regions And there they must have been condensed into Rains And these Rains must have made Bodies of Waters And these Bodies of Waters must have been so great as to have slowed along through or against all obstacles And these Floods must have been so violent as to have hollow'd out Chanâ—ls for themselves all the way they went And all this in one days space Otherwise there must have been no Fishes made Or they must not have been made when GOD says they were Or when they were made there must have been no sutable Receptacles for them For as for the Waters of the Abyss they could by no means serve for this use as will appear in the Sequel of our Discourse 4. But we are to pursue this matter farther yet There could be no Rivers in due time that has been evidenced It is next to be proved that there could be none at all before the Flood How Rivers were first made we have been instructed by Rains descending from above But whereabouts were these to fall In the Frigid Zones or towards the Poles we are told and the Scheme representing them shows as much But then methinks they should have been in great danger yea under inavoidable necessity of Freezing For the Sun according to this Hypothesis moving always in the Aequinoctial before the Flood he would constantly have been as remote from those raining Regions as he is now from us in the depth of Winter when he runs through Capricorn or which is all one when the Earth traverseth the opposite Sign And there being then no such Clouds as now nor yet any Seas by their foggy Vapours to mitigate the keenness of the Air nor any Hills or Valleys to cause a warmth by confused and irregular reflections of the Sun-beams the Frosts within the Polar Circles must needs have been exceeding sharp and terrible And so the Fountains that should have fed the whole World with Water would have been fast sealed up Fig 2 Pag 115 Thus if the Circle c d e f be divided into Eight parts by the parallel lines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 we shall find that the two Arches a and b forming the Circle into a moderate Oval will at the points a and b include such spaces between themselves and the sides of the Circle c and e as shall be equal in breadth to any two spaces betwixt the equidistant Parallels According to which proportions allowing the Earth to be 7000. Miles in Diameter though the true measure of it makes it more and then adding a fourth part to it to render it Oval viz. 1750. Mile thickness the Earth at each Pole must bear above fourteen Degrees Latitude or near nine hundred Miles extent more than if it had been exactly round And that Hypothesis which removes its Poles so much farther from the Sun must also allow the cold thereabouts to be proportionably augmented And though in the hundred and fourth Degree of Latitude as we must call it on each side of the Aequator that is at the very Poles there might have been perpetual day the beams of the Sun reaching a and b the two Poles of the supposed Oval Earth and illightning them continually yet his heat in those places must needs have been exceeding languid forasmuch as his Orb would always have been half above and half under the Horizon to them This will be clear from the Scheme if we do but conceive the line i d f to be the Aequator and the Sun ever moving directly in it For then it must divide him into two Semidiameters g and h at all times conspicuous at the Poles respectively That is to say the Semidiameter g at the Pole a and the Semidiameter h at the Pole b. But then the Sun 's being thus halved must of necessity be a mighty diminution of his influence especially at so extraordinary a distance It would have rendred his warmth more faint than it is with us in the Winter Solstiâ—e when he is just a Setting or half set But our business is rather to enquire what the temperature of the Air would have been nearer to the polar Circles where these Rains are conceived to have fallen Now if these Regions were as remote from the Sun as we are when he is farthest from us the Air must have been every whit as freezing there as it is with us in the very dead of Winter And that they were some degrees farther from the Sun I think we need not question For when the Sun is gone farthest from us he reaches but to twenty three degrees and an half of Southern Latitude which added to our fifty two of Northern the whole amounts but to seventy five and an half But granting the Earth to have been stretcht out to that length to which its oval fashion would have extended it and the supposed dripping Countries in the first World might easily have been farther from the Sun and consequently colder by several Degrees In case it be opposed That nights with us when the Sun is retired to his utmost point in Capricorn are some hours longer than they could be in the prediluvial State and that this might so far strengthen the Cold as to make it superior to what it could be in the wet Regions we speak of I answer though our Nights be somewhat longer yet we now dwell among Clouds and Seas which do very much bemist and thicken the Air and so make it warmer than it could be in the primitive World where neither of
them were to be â—ound at the rate we have them And truly the perpetual absence of them must needs have made the Air more severely nipping in the Frigid Zones then than it is now Especially they being shot out so far from the Sun by virtue of the oblong figure of the first Earth For even as the Earth is now of a Globular make the Rains might have fallen in the Frigid Zones for ten Degrees latitude or six hundred Miles together and yet on the one side have been five Degrees distant from the Poles themselves and on the other side have been seventy five Degrees distant from the Sun in the Aequinox which is as far to half a Degree as he is ever remov'd from us But then if we add better than fourteen Degrees more to each Pole upon accompt of the Earth's Oâ—iformity the Rains must be removed a great way farther from the Sun still perhaps the whole fourteen Degrees into Climates most horridly cold and freezing And though there would have been constant Day about the very Poles yet in this Oval Earth there would have been as much Night in the presumed rainy Regions as in any other part of it whatever For so we may observe that those rays of the Sun which fell upon that Earth suppose at k and l whereabouts according to the Hydrographic Scheme in the Theory we may imagine the Rainy Regions were could not illighten the opposite side of it at m and n till such time as those points were turned to him which they could not be sooner than the point f where it must have been of the biggest circumference measuring it in way of Longitude Indeed it must be owned that it is not the Sun's distance in Winter which does only or chiefly make our Climate so cold but the oblique falling of his beams on the Earth So that instead of his retreating Southward forty seven Degrees the whole space between the Tropics were he at the time of his entring into Cancer when he is nearest to us but elevated directly as many Degrees or removed only perpendicularly from us our Winter if any would be very moderate because his beams would be reflected in the same Angles as before But his recession from us being in way of latitude or declination â—is Rays must fall the more obliquely upon the Earth From which kind of incidence it comes to pass that they rebound in obtuse Angles and the heat which should be caused by more direct reverberations is impaired As also many of his beams are reflected by the Atmosphaere another way and come not at us at all But then the Sun being farther distant from the rainy Regions in the praediluvian Earth his beams must have fallen more obliquely upon them still and so the cold must have been greater there because his influence was less And therefore what can be thought but that the Dewy Rains if any could have been in those parts should either in falling have been turned into Hails or if they fell in Water have been frozen into Ice And so instead of streaming along and refreshing the Earth they must have stood congeled into Mountains Especially if we consider that extremely cold hanging Mists must have always incircled those Regions above and so have shut out that sorry kind of influence which might have been derived from the so remote and feeble Sun It may a little inforce what has been said that all who have held with the Theorist the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable by reason of heat ever believed that the Frigid ones were so through extremity of cold as Aristotle Cicero Strabo Mela Pliny and others To which add That several Navigators attempting to find out a nearer course to China have been frozen to death Yet they failed nothing so far Northward as the rainy Regions in the Oval Earth must have lain Though without question they chose the most seasonable time for the Enterprize I mean when the Sun was on this side of the Aequator where now he may advance though he could not do so says the Theory before the Flood twenty three Degrees and an half which on Earth we reckon about fourteen hundred Miles Nor is what Mercator remembers touching Novâ— Zembla impertinent to the Case Here the Air is very sharp and the Cold most vehement and intolerable And again their Tents are covered with Whales skins the Cold being continually very sharp in these parts Their drink the Geographer goes on is warm blood of wild Beasts or else Ice water there are no Rivers or Springs because the violence of the Cold does so shut up the Earth that Springs of waters cannot break forth And where Rivers cannot flow out of the Earth for Forst surely they cannot fall down from Heaven Yet this Island is extended but form the Seventieth to the Seventy sixth Degree of Northern Latitude or thereabouts Speed also informs us that the Isles of Shetland in the Deucalidonian Sea are ever covered with Ice and Snow Yet Ptolomy placeth them but in the Sixty third Degree of Latitude which is a good way on this side of the Arctic Circle Heylin also says of Island that it is a damnable cold Country And Blaeu reports of the Frigid Zones Perpetuum istic horridumque est frigus There is perpetual and horrid Cold. Lastly the Theorist himself so far agrees with us as to own that the Frigid Zones in the first Earth were uninhabitable and that by reason of Cold as well as Moisture CHAP. VI. 1. Another Exception against the Hypothesis it would have drowned the world though Man had not sinned 2 Or though Mankind had been never so penitent 3. Which would have reflected upon Providence and imboldened the Atheist 1. WE are taught from above That GOD brought in the Flood upon the World of the VNGODLY That is it was a Judicial act of His and a just revenge which he took upon the impious They had grievously offended and provoked His MAJESTY by very great and epidemical Sins For as we read in the Sixth of Genesis the wickedness of Man was great and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and all flesh had corrupted his way before him Whereupon the HOLY GHOST speaking of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of Men declares that he was grieved at the heart to see this And such was the grief he conceived that He repented He made Man And so vehemently did He repent of making him that He resolved to destroy him again And not only him but most of his fellow creatures with him made in good measure for his use and benefit And not only them but the Earth it self in some sense which had been the scene of his vanity and unrighteousness And at length He decrees and proclaims aloud that the Instrument of this fearful general destruction should be a Deluge of water Gen. 6. 17. So that nothing can be more clear than that the Flood
and recompences of it being not so frequently dispensed and the Eternal ones not so fully revealed the Divine favour was more commonly measured and expressed to Men by temporal and outward Blessings and deliverances And therefore that He abhorred such inequitable Dealings he was pleased to evidence by the contrary Procedure For when He consumed that accursed Town he saved just Lot by the Ministery of Angels Nor could He endure that Nâ—ah should perish being righteous but took particular care for his wonderfull preservation when the whole World besides Him and his Family was drowned But then so much less reason there is to admit this Hypothesis for that it makes the Earth at first of such a Form and puts Nature into such a Frame as would have involv'd Mankind in most horrid Destruction And not only so but moreover makes Providence accessary to their Perdition yea the principal and sole Contriver of it by making the place of their Habitation a perfect Trap to vast multitudes of them whereby without a Miracle they must certainly have been taken and quite undone had they been never so pure or never so penitent Should it be suggested that GOD foresaw the impiety and incorrigibleness of Men and so in way of just judgment ordered Nature and timed the Earth's Dissolution accordingly this would give little satisfaction to the Atheist the silencing of whose Cavils the Theory seems to aim at For he would take it at best but for a smooth Evasion or a slim Subterfuge or for a sorry kind of Fetch to help the Hypothesis at a dead lift Nor need we doubt but a Lucian or an Hobbs would raise as considerable Objections against this New way of explaining the Flood as against the Old one And would insist as tenaciously upon that Particular now mentioned and cavil as much and as justly at it as at the difficulty or unsolvableness of any single Phaenomenon in the way of its usual Explication CHAP. VII 1. Saint Peter's words alledged in favour of the Hypothesis inapplicable to that Purpose 2. Wherein the stress of them seems to lie 3. Seven other Allegations out of Scripture of no Force 4. As being Figurative and so not Argumentative 5. Which Tycho Brache not minding it gave occasion to his Systeme 1. TO countenance the Formation and Structure of the Earth aforesaid the Ingenious Theorist has call'd in several Divine Authorities And it being attempted to authenticate the Hypothesis by Allegations of that nature it is but necessary that we take notice of them and show their invalidity The first is cited out of the Second Epistle of S. Peter and runs thus 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 overâ—lowed with water perisht But the Heavens and the Earth that are now by the same word are kept in store reserv'd unto fire against the day of judgment Where it is thought the Apostle doth plainly intimate some difference that was between the Old World and our present World in their form or constitution by reason of which difference that was subject to perish by a deluge as this is subject to perish by conâ—lagration To wind his words into a favourable compliance with this sense some specious offers are made But instead of applying answers to each of them in Particular we may shorten our work by obviating them with one general Observation touching the Paragraph which is this There is a Clause in it that will by no means suffer it to be interpreted the Theorist's way Namely this they are willingly ignorant of And of what were they thus ignorant Why of the Nature of the first Heavens and Earth and of the alterations that befel them at the time of the Flood So we are assured The Apostle tells them that they are willingly ignorant of the first constitution of the Heavens and the Earth and of that change and dissolution which happen'd to them in the Deluge But if St. Peter meant these things I dare boldly say that his charge was too smart and heavy upon the Men yea false and unreasonable For though ignorant of the things they might well be yet how could they be WILLINGLY ignorant of them Must not that be hard to make out Let us try but as to one of the mentioned heads the FORM of the Earth By what means should they have come to the knowledge of that though they would never so fain have done it GOD had not reveled it nor had Man apprehended it And how then could their ignorance in the case be wilfull In what Books was this Form of the Earth recorded Or what lively Tokens or Monuments were there of it Whence should they have gathered it Or where should they have met with Intelligence concerning it To say that Hills and Valleys and Mountains and Rocks that the Clifts of the Sea and its Deeps and Chanels that the rugged and broken Surface of the Ground or any thing of that nature might have informed them of it would be but wild and extravagant talk For besides that these Scoffers whom the Apostle reproves had no reason to believe that the aforesaid Phaenomenaes were marks or Footsteps of a ruinated Earth so if by chance they had phansied them such they might still have been far from a right Idaea of its supposed primitive frame A man may view and review an heap of Rubbish which was once an house very long and often and yet be never the more able at last to pronounce what Model the Fabric was of In like manner the most curious Surveys and reiterated observations of things in that confused posture wherein the Earth presents them to the eye could never have led those the Apostle disputes against into a right apprehension of this its Figure which the Theory makes it of before the Flood Had there been fair Indications of such a Form why did they not direct Men into an earlier Discovery thereof For touching it we find not one word in Antiquity Yet Mountains and Rocks and the like Deformities in Nature as we are taught to think them were altogether as visible ever since the Deluge as they are now And when none of the most searching prying minds none of the most busy intelligent Speculators were ever so quick-sighted as to decry this Form of the Earth from the aforesaid imagined Irregularities or any other hints or Characters of it it was certainly a thing too obscure to fall under the notice of those Heretical Mockers deservedly reprehended by the HOLY GHOST But then how could He rebuke them for being wilfully ignorant of it it being so very dark a Mystery Even by the Theorist's own confession this Doctrine was always abstruse and such as the Wisest Philosophers did never hit upon They never knew of a Paradisiacal Earth themselves nor did they ever speak any thing of
disruption of the Abyss as if the fall of the Earth had caused such extraordinary commotions in the Air or convulsions of its Regions as made them every where to pour down Waters For the Theory will have the Rains to be antecedent to the disruption I do not suppose the Abyss broken open till after the forty days rain But then this is most directly against Scripture again for that plainly affirms the contrary that the Fountains of the great Deep and the Windows of Heaven were both opened upon one day Gen. 7. 11. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened So that in the same year of Noah's Life and in the same Month of that Year and on the same Day of that Month the Fountains below and the Windows above were both set open that the Waters issuing out of both might raise the Deluge 6. Let me add in the next place That it is a known Question that has been moved by Writers of all sorts Ancient and Modern Iewish and Christian Divines Historians Chronologers c. at what time of the year the Flood came in Iosephus for instance will have it to happen in Autumn others in the Spring and they give their reasons for it The Question does manifestly proceed upon inadvertency their not minding that when it was Spring in one part of the World it was Autumn in another And the like Question is put by Writers and bandied among them touching the Creation at what time of the year that great Work was done But somewhat more improperly there being no Seasons of the year before the Creation Now this being the general Judgment of the Learned That the year had Tempestival Changes from the beginning even the same that it has now as these Questions import from hence it may be inferted that they never dreamt of this Position of the Earth or a Perpetual Aequinox but were all of the contrary perswasion or common Opinion 7. As for the Authorities that are made use of to establish the Doctrine we are upon if they be examined they will hardly be found to speak home in the case For though in the Contents of the Tenth Chapter of the Second Book of the Latin Theory it be thus declared the last Article concerning the right Situation of the first Earth is establisht by the sentences of Philosophers yet if their Sentences alledged in that Chapter be well considered they will appear to be too weak and insufficient I shall set them all down fully to avoid suspicion of perverting or misrepresenting them The first is taken out of Plutarch and delivered by him as the joint Opinion of two ancient Philosophers Diogenes and Anaxagoras think that after the World was constituted and living creatures were brought forth out of th◠Earth the World in a manner was inclined towards its Southern part of its own accord And that this perchance was done by providence that some parts of the World might be inhabited and others not by reason of cold heat and convenient temperature But this will do the Theory little service it rather fights against it For the Inclination here is said to be made by Providence that some of the Worlds parts might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitable by reason of a good temperature Which agrees not with the Theory for that holds the World to have been of the best temperature before the Earth was inclined insomuch that it knew no Season but Spring And what then could mend its habitableness Yet in order to that the Earth was inclined as the Citation intimates And when in the Judgment of these Philosophers the inclination of the Earth was to conduce to or improve its habitableness and according to the Tenor of the Theory it would rather have been an hindrance or disadvantage to the same it is apparent that this Allegation does rather cross than confirm the Hypothesis In case it be argued That this Inclination might promote or mend the habitableness of the Earth as it quenched the flame in the Torrid Zone and reduced its intolerable to a gentle hea◠neither thus can the Passage be drawn to favour the Theory For say the Philosophers by vertue of this Inclination some parts of the Earth were to be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uninhabitable and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too upon the account of vehement heat Whereas this very Inclination was of necessity to be a qualification or corrective or indeed a perfect extinction of all furious burning in the Torrid Zone as the Theory owns So that the Authority cited is so far from establishing the Theory's Hypothesis of the Earth's Inclination that it will not be easily reconciled to it Nor can it excuse the matter with this Pair of Philosophers to say that they were blinded here with the common Error and ran for company with those that believed there was a Torrid Zone when there really was none For allowing they were so sagacious as to discover this Secret of the Earth's Inclination we must also grant that by the same quick-sightedness they would clearly have discerned that the effect thereof could not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a scorching raging insufferable heat about the middle of the Earth but a certain mitigation or quenching of the same The second Sentence is that of Empedocles which occurs in the same Chapter of Plutarch Empedocles teacheth That the Air giving way to the force of the Sun the North inclined the Northern parts being elevated and the Southern ones depressed and this happened by that means to the whole World Here is a mighty effect produced without a cause assigned at least here is non causa pro causa the assignation of a cause altogether incompetent and not to be understood For why should the Air yield to the force of the Sun more towards the South than towards the North when his force was equal upon both the Regions at once For he moving at all times exactly in the midst betwixt them his influence must be exactly alike upon each and therefore that it should cause the depression of one more than of the other is a thing in the dark and unintelligible But say the Sun had had power to displace the Earth and by sinking one Pole of it through such a cession of the Air to have raised the other yet then that this cession should not be in the Air nor consequently this dislocation of the Earth till the Flood happened is not to be thought And therefore this Sentence favours not the Theory neither for that has positively determined the time of the Deluge to have been the juncture of the Earth's declension or dislocation Whereas if the Sun had been the cause thereof by working a change in the Air conducive thereunto it must have been accomplisht
least tendency towards jetting out or flying off from the whole but by the Laws of gravity were all impregnated with the contrary determination a nitency inward or downward towards the Central Point And then Secondly It was Liquid also and so of a yielding temper or consistency Ready to give way to the lightest pressures and by a forward pliantness to fall into that Figure into which the circumâ—luent Air would fashion it For that Element alone or a thinner than that but by moving and gently gliding upon it might easily smooth it into perfect evenness provided it did but encompass it around and so was capable of slicking it by a general levigation And therefore Thirdly It swam in such a fluid Element as did so environ it grasping it on all sides with a soft compression So that during its fluitation in that surrounding and gently constringent Medium it could not but be of a truly Globular Form Which admitted the Primitive Earth must needs be so too and not Oval as being cast upon this Globous Mould But to this it is opposed That the Liquid Mass whereon the first Earth was built was not quiescent So it might yea it must have been truly spherical And the Theory it self owns as much I nothing doubt but amass of Water will naturally make it self into a spherical Figure about its own centre if so be it rests immovable and quiet But then it adds But in case it be turned swiftly about its Center by that agitation it will necessarily make it self oblong and become of a Figure somewhat Oval just as when Waters are pusht forward in a Vessel or in some part of a Sea or Lake are driven by a Wind toward the Shores we see the Waves stretch themselves out long-ways In answer to which let it be confessed That the Liquid Mass on which the Earth was raised was rolled about and that very swiftly upon its own Centre Yet that by vertue of its gyration it should be shaped into an Oval fashion was not at all necessary nor will the Instances brought in prove it was so there being no parity or just proportion betwixt the several Cases For for Waters to be forced an end by the external violence of Winds where the impression propelling them is superficial and their motion progressive is a different thing from their circumrotation in one entire Moles where they turn only with a natural and most even Course carrying the ambient body whereby they are â—ircumscribed and helpt to keep their Figure round along with them For thus we see that notwithstanding the Earth turns so swiftly that every point in its circumference under the Aequator moves at the rate of fifteen Degrees nine hundred Miles an hour yet the finest Sand upon the surface of the Earth or the lightest Dust upon the tops of the Mountains is never dissipated or disturbed in the least by this whisking circumvolution Whence we may gather the case being much the same that the whirling Globe of Water was so far from a necessity of growing oblong by its rotation that that very thing might contribute to preserving it in a Globular Forâ— But therefore let us hear what the Theory says further and more distinctly yet touching the Cause of the Oval Figure of that Mass of Water which was the basis of the primitive Earth It speaks it fully in these words Nor is the reason of this Figure obscure in a Globe of Water which is moved circularly for the Mass of Water being much more agitated under the Aequator than the Waters towards the Poles where it passed through lesser circles those parts which were most moved endeavouring to recede from the Centre of their motion when they could not quite spring up and fly away because of the Air which lay upon them on every side nor yet could fall back again as being checked and resisted by that Air they were unable so free themselves any other way than by flowing down to the sides for Waters being pent do flow that way where they find easiest passage and from that flowing down of the Waters to the sides and disburthening of the middle parts about the Aequator the Globe of Water might become somewhat oblong So that the Cause of the Oval Figure in the Chaotic Waters seems in short to be this Their discharging themselves defluendo ad latera by flowing down to the sides or Poles of the Globe upon their swelling or rising up by means of their rapid circular motion about the Aequator But granting the Waters did swell and rise thereabouts which yet would admit of dispute against this piece of the Theory's Hypothesis it may be thus excepted Either the Waters did flow down to the sides or Poles of the Globe till it became Oval or they did not If they did not flow down so long the Hypothesis fails and the watry Mass could never be Oval If they did flow down so long then they must flow down till they flowed down upwards Pardon the absurdity of the Expression the absurdity of the thing occasions it For the Polar parts of the watry Mass as it became Oval were the highest being most distant from the Centre And yet from the Aequator they did defluere ad latera flow down to the Sides or Poles Which that they might do it was absolutely necessary that the parts about the Aequator should be highest else the Waters in flowing to the Poles would have been so far from flowing down that contrary to their natures they must have risen up above their Source And yet as absolutely necessary again it was that the Polar parts should be highest at last otherwise the watry Mass could never have been made of an Oval Figure And yet if it were made into that Figure by the Waters flowing down as the Theory says from about the Aequator to the sides or Polar parts then a third thing will be as necessary as either of the two mentioned namely That the Waters as was said before should flow down upwards So that it is as unlikely that the Mass of Waters was ever of an Oval Form as it is unlikely that a Contradiction should be true or that the Element of Water should of it self perform a motion which is beyond its power by being above or against its nature I say of it self for however there might be violence that of the circular motion in making it to swell about the Aequator yet when once it was risen there it was left to it self as I may say all farther force was taken off it and it might follow the duct of its own Principles of Gravity and Fluidity And accordingly it is said by the Theory se liberare to free it self from that force which it suffered in receding from its Center or rising up under the Aequator defluendo by falling off or flowing down a proper expression of the true natural motion of Water But then if the place it fell or flowed to
loss they would have been at for Pâ—ey how could they have seen to direct their Motions having no manner of Light at any time to guide them So that upon occasion they must have râ—n at tilt upon one another and being inclosed between two Earths would have been in danger of stranding themselves both above and below Secondly It would have been a place as close as it was dark And therefore what shift should they have made for Air I think I may say for Breath For as for Whales and other Fishes that have Lungs Pliny says It is fully resolved by all Writers that they breathe And his Opinion it is That all Water-creatures do the same after their manner In proof of which he offers several Arguments not to be despised As their Panting Yawning Hearing Smelling c. To which add their Dying upon being frozen up for any time Or if they be alive their greedy flying to any little hole made in the Ice whereat the Air enters But in the Abyss they could have had neither Air nor Breath and so for lack of the same must all have been smothered Lastly It would have been a place as Cold as it was dark and close For the same Cover of Earth of unknown thickness that would have hindred Light and Air from piercing into the Abyss must have kept out the Suns cherishing and benign Warmth too So that could they have struggled with and overcome the two first Inconveniences yet here they would have met with a Third insuperable Could they have lived without Light and Breath yet they could not have multiplied without the Influence of Heaven The want of that would have chil'd and quench'd the desires of Procreation in them and rendered them impotent that way Thus Winter we see is no season for Production of Fishes as being destitute of that quickning power and encouragement which the Presence of the Sun affords 4. Farther yet That there were Seas in the Beginning even on the Third Day we are taught Gen. 1. 10. GOD called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And why should they not be such Seas as we have now For we have no more grounds to think or say That the Waters there mentioned were an invisible potential or proleptic Sea than we have to imagine or affirm that the dry Land there spoken of was an invisible potential or proleptic Earth And that there were open Seas then may be argued from the Waters we read of under the firmament Gen. 1. 6 7. And GOD said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And GOD made the firmament and divided THE WATERS WHICH WERE VNDER THE FIRMAMENT from the waters which were above the Firmament But had there been none but River-waters in the first World and not such an open and huge Collection of Waters as we now see the Firmament could not so properly have been said to divide the waters from the waters For then it must rather have been in the midst betwixt the Earth and the Waters and so must have divided the Earth from the Waters the Earth which was under the Firmament from the Waters above it For as for the River-waters they would have been too inconsiderable to have had the Partition made by the Firmament predicated of them in exclusion of the Earth or in preference to it It would have been as if the KING should have said Let a Wall be built betwixt the Thames and the Conduits of London to part them without taking any notice at all of the City which is infinitely more remarkable than the Conduits are But therefore the Theory presents us with a new Notion of the Firmament and makes it to be quite another thing than what it has always been said to be namely That Cortex or Outward Region of Earth spread and founded upon the Abyss And so the Waters of the Abyss under that Earth must be the Waters under the Firmament I cite but two Paragraphs to this purpose Any one at the first view might be able to guess that this exterior frame which GOD establisht upon the Abyss is to be understood by that Firmament which GOD is said to have establisht between the Waters below and above Gen. 1. 6. 7. And again As to the Firmament between the waters it was a remarkable Phaenomenon of the first Earth or rather the first habitable Orb it self which every way encompassed and shut up the Abyss and so divided the Waters above from those below But this truly is so far from giving any satisfaction that it will rather bring the whole Hypothesis to confusion I mean while thus it runs against Scripture again and that most directly and shamefully For the Firmamentum interaqueum Firmament that divided the Waters was so far from being a Frame or an Orb of Earth or the first habitable Earth that as the DIVINEST SPIRIT tells us it was that wherein the Fowls were to fly which yet were to fly above the Earth Gen. 1. 20. Yea in that very Verse it is said to be the Firmament of Heaven And by GOD himself is stiled Heaven GOD called the Firmament Heaven ver 8. Even that very Firmament which divided the Waters as we learn from the two foregoing Verses And therefore the waters under the Firmament in the seventh Verse are said in the ninth Verse to be the waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Heavens I confess the Theorist twits us for understanding by the Firmament what we commonly do calling it an Vnphilosophic thing But I forbear to retort It is enough to shew that the advantage lies so much on our side and that the ingenious Philosopher is so utterly lost in his Notion And since to make the Earth before the Flood to be this Firmament is so impossible as being manifestly repugnant to the Truth of GOD what remains but that it should be that diaphanous Expansum stretched out betwixt us and the Clouds which as it is constituted of Air chiefly so it is the place wherein Fowls do fly according as Providence was pleased to appoint And to seal up this for a certain truth it is known that the Hebrews have no other word whereby to express Air but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven or Firmament Only whereas this Aereous Expansion extends from hence to the cloudy Regions where are the Wates above the Firmament and therefore are called Waters above the Heavens we must note that there is another Firmament mention'd by Moses I mean that Expanse of indefinite vastness wherein the Celestial Lights are fixed for as we read Gen. 1. 17. GOD set them in the Firmament of Heaven But then this Aereous space we speak of being the true Firmament this proves there were open Seas at first Else as was said before this Firmament must have divided the Waters from the Earth whose
this is that will be made good by casting in on the present Earth's side the sinking hollownesses and declivities of Valleys and the swelling protuberancies and gibbosities of Mountains neither of which the first Earth had Farther if People before the Flood were generally so long-liv'd and this their Longaevity proceeded from a perpetual Aequinox and settled benign temperature of the Air as the Theory holds then surely there would not have been that difference as to length of days amongst them as we find there was Thus Lamech's Age as appears in the Catalogue of long livers was short of Mathuselah's near two hundred years Whereas if the Cause of long life had been so uniform and steddy a thing and so generally and equally influential upon all as the supposed Aequinox the Effect would have answered it Longaevity it self would have been more regular and not have admitted of so much disparity Though the truth is such an Aequinox and such an Earth as we have heard of would rather help to shorten life we may think than draw it out to such a length For certain it is that they must shut all Winds and Storms and Clouds and Rains and Thunders and Lightnings out of the First World And what are these but Crises of Nature wherein those malignities and noxious qualities which are lodged in her and would corrupt her suffer a Solution and are discharged just as morbific humors in the Body first ferment and then are thrown off by proper Evacuations But when there could be no Storms or Thunders to put the Air into Motion and to purge and clarifie it that so it might continue pure and wholsome it being always calm and too quiescent like stagnant Water must needs putrifie and contract such foulness as would make it unhealthy and apt to cause grievous Diseases and Death Egypt is almost in the pretended state of the Primitive Earth Situate between the second and fifth Climates its longest day not above thirteen hours and an half has seldom any Rain but is watered by a River Yet how subject is Cairo to raging Plagues and where are greater or oftener Mortalities than there I have only this to add here If the Aequinox spoken of were the cause of a general Longaevity in the Prediluvian World then other Animals would have lived as long proportionably as Men. That is to say Lions Bears Wolves Dogs c. And these multiplying five or six times to say no more as fast as Men might have soon over-powered and destroyed them Also Rats Mice Fowls c. multiplying in that World all the year round and in far greater numbers than the Creatures aforesaid would have destroyed Mankind another way not by devouring them but the Fruits of the Earth which they were to live upon Especially when Men lived wholly on such Fruits without eating Flesh and had no such ways and instruments at first of killing those Vermin as now they have Nor did the Earth yield such plenty of Corn of its own accord as to satisfie all granivorous Creatures without preying upon Mens Corps For upon Man's sin the ground was cursed And upon that Malediction it afforded not Corn without Tillage For thence forward even Adam himself was to eat of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sorrow or labour all the days of his life nor could he have Bread butâ— at the price of his Sweat And if the first Men had no Bread-Corn but what their industry fetch'd out of the Earth how could they defend it against the swarms of devouring Creatures increasing always upon them by numerous Procreations Even barely to name all the sorts of them that would be hurtful upon the account we speak of and would unspeakably abound in a World that knows no season but Spring is so great a Task that I am willing to decline it Yet that other Creatures did live proportionably as long as Mankind the Theory owns where it makes the Longaevity of both at once a Third Phaenomenon of Paradise and the first Ages And which is veâ—â— considerable also it makes the first Earth the common Mother of all sorts of Animals which naturally bred them and brought them forth Whence it must follow that those Terrigenous Creatures strangely increasing by spontaneous Births would soon have filled the World even this way alone though they had not propagated their respective Kinds with such inconceiveable multitudes as would have easily spoiled the Earth and ruin'd Mankind Who as they were made in the beginning but in one Pair so they were capable comparatively but of a slow Multiplication And so Beasts Fowls Creeping Things Insects and all manner of deadly and pernicious Creatures would have poured in upon them in vast numbers and with incredible forces while they were unable to defend themselves against them CHAP. XIV 1. The Flood could not be caused by the Dissolution of the Earth and its falling into the Abyss 2. For it would have been inconsistent with the Description of Paradise 3. It would have destroy'd the Ark. 4. And have made the Earth of a Form different from what now it is of 5. It would also have reduced it to a miserable Barrenness 6. And have overturned the Buildings which outstood the Deluge 7. And have rendred the Covenant which GOD made with Noah vain and insignificant 1. LET us now go on to the next Vital or Primary Assertion of the Theory which is this The Disruption and Fall of the Earth into the Abyss which lay under it was that which made the Vniversal Deluge and the Destruction of the old World For the vehement and piercing heat of the Sun having parched and chapped the exterior Orb of Earth and so greatly weakned it and also having raised great store of Vapours out of the Deep within this Orb their force at length grew to be such that the Walls inclosing them being unable to hold them the whole Fabric brake being torn in pieces as it were with an Earthquake At which time the Fragments of that Orb of Earth of several sizes plunging into the Abyss in several Postures by their weight and greatness and violent descent caused such a rageing Tumult in the Waters and put them into so fierce Commotions and furious Agitations as made them boil and flow up above the tops of the new made Mountains and so caused the general Deluge But against this we Except also and say that the Flood could not be thus effected for several reasons 2. First Because it would be inconsistent with Moses's Description of Paradise What that Description is we have seen already and 't is done according to the proper Rules of Topography For first he marks it out by its Quality a Garden Then by its name Eden Then by its Situation Eastward Then by its Inhabitant Man Then by its Furniture every Tree pleasant to the sight and good for Food And lastly by a River to Water it which rising in it or running through or by it
have hindred the same Waters from running back into it Not the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth for if they were there in such plenty as 't is confest there is room enough for them as to have been able to have made a much greater Flood than Noah's yet then against their nature they must have risen above their Source and being so risen they must have stood so long as the Flood lasted in a miraculous opposition to their own nature inclining them to retire from whence they came Not the Supercelestial Waters for then the breaking up of the Fountains of the great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven must be one and the same thing Whereas by Moses they are very plainly and carefully distinguisht Not the inclosed Abyss for then besides that the whole Hypothesis so improbable must be allowed the forty days Rain would have been utterly needless Because then the falling of the Earth into the Abyss being the breaking up of the Fountains of the great Deep it must have fallen in the very first day that Noah went into the Ark because on that very day all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up Gen. 7. 11. And if by the Earth's falling into the Abyss the World were drowned the first day that Noah entered the Ark as of necessity it must have been if the Earth were dissolved and fell that day to what purpose should it after that rain for forty days together And whereas it is said Gen. 8. 2. That the Fountains of the Deep were stopped the Earth broken down into the Abyss was never made up again nor the Abyss it self covered but remains still as open as ever To which Particular Heads let me add but one more which has a kind of general Relation to them all If either the open Sea or the Waters within the Earth or the Waters above the Heavens or the Abyss under the Earth had been the great Deep meant by Mosâ—s none of them had any true or proper Fountains in them And so what will become of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Fountains of the great Deep But now supposing that the Caverns in the Mountains were this great Deep how surprizingly do all these things fall in with them For First They are called great Deeps by the HOLY GHOST as has been noted Psal. 78. Secondly They were capable of being cleaved or broke open as being fast shut up Thirdly They were able to afford a competent quantity of Water even as much as it was necessary they should yield Fourthly The Water that came forth of them could never return into them more Fifthly The breaking them up must be quite another thing than opening the Windows of Heaven Sixthly They might all be broke up the same day that Noah took into the Ark. Seventhly The Rain which fell in the forty days would still have been as needful as ever Eighthly They were stopped again as strictly and literally as they were broken up Lastly They were as true and distinct Fountains as any in the World So that if they were not the real Fountains of the Mosaic Tehom Rabbah one would think they might well have been so 5. But let us now pass as it is time we should to a Second Ground upon which we build the probability of our Hypothesis above specified namely That the Flood was but fifteen Cubits higher than the highest parts of the surface of the Earth And that Ground is this Supposing that to have been the true height of the Flood it will not only be possible but very easie to find Water enough for it without recourse to such Inventions as have been and justly may be disgustful not only to nice and squeamish but to the best and soundest Philosophic Judgments For thus in the First place we need not call in the Theory's assistance an Hypothesis how ingenious soever in the contrivance and contexture of it guilty of unjustifiable absurdities Nor Secondly need we fly to a New Creation of Water to gain a sufficient quantity of it An Expedient that sounds harshly in the Ears of many And that not only because they are of Opinion that GOD finisht the work of Creation in the first six days But because he has expresly declared That the true and only Causes of the Deluge were these Two The breaking up of all the Fountains of the great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven To which may be added That the Creation of so vast a quantity of Water as should have surmounted the highest Hills would certainly have inferred either an enlargement of the whole Universe to receive it and so a Dislocation and consequently a disorder of its parts respectively or else a Penetration of the Dimensions of Bodies while so much new matter should have sprung into being more than ever existed and yet have been confined to the same space of aboad that was before fill'd up in its whole capacity Nor need we Thirdly to fetch Waters from the Supercelestial Regions Where if the Heavens be Fluid how could they have kept from falling down so long And if they be Solid how could they possibly have descended at last For in their descent they must have bored their way through several Orbs as hard as Crystal and how thick we know not Besides these Waters must have been lodg'd either below the Stars or above them If below them they would have hid them from our sight The Sun himself cannot be seen through a watry Cloud how much less the Stars through a watry Ocean Nor will it help to say the Element of Water above is more fine and transparent than the Waters below For were it as thin as an ordinary Mist still it would hide the Sun's Face from us though it might transmit his light In case they were plac'd above the Stars they must have been delug'd before the Earth could have been so as intercepting them in their fall Nor could they have slid off the Stars again dropping down to the Earth unless that were the Center of the Universe which is hard to prove yea most absurd to think Nor will it be necessary in the Fourth place to suppose the Mass of Air or greatest part of it was changed into Water to make the Deluge A change which some will by no means admit of as being not hitherto proved by Experiment Yet I cannot but own that the best Philosophers have thought it fecible and also believed it to be actually done The Egyptians conceived Manethus and Hecataeus both attest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Rains were made by the version of Air. Plato was of the same Opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Air being thickned and condensed made Clouds and Mists And so was Philo. For besides that he affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it varies and runs through all manner of mutations He says expresly in another Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That Air being