so as to the Separations he supposes to have pass'd in the Chaos I have many things to say Not to stand therefore with the Author for allowing a Chaos and that it was a fluid Masse and of a circular Figure tho I know no reason why a Man should admit a Postulatum which if the Authority of Moses may be set by as the Author does I see no ground for unless it be to serve a turn for trying whether a natural Explication may be given of a Deluge which I judg miraculous and to reason with those who seem to have held gradual successive Changes to have pass'd in the Chaos in order to the forming of the World The main Error as I conceive on which the Author has grounded his whole Theory for the Composition of his Earth as it rose from a Chaos is that he has here consider'd the Chaos not as a strongly fermented Masse which it must necessarily have been from the infinite variety of seminal Principles of a contrary Nature therein contained as all Antiquity has represented it and from this fundamental Error has concluded that in the Separations and Settlements of the Chaos all things pass'd according to the common Laws of Gravity observ'd in the subsiding of unfermented Bodies no respect being had to those Effects which must necessarily have been produc'd by the said Ferments Can any Man cast his Eye on the Contrariety of Natures which appears betwixt Superiors and Inferiors and what we find in the Animal Vegitable and Mineral Kingdoms which every where occur to us and not presently thence conclude from the consideration of a Chaos where all these are suppos'd to have been confusedly mixt that the same Contrariety must have been there and that turbulent and violent Commotions were thence rais'd in it To go no further than Ovid who has represented the Nature of a Chaos as well as any of the Antients where he speaks of it he says Congestáque eodem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum And mingled there The jarring Seeds of ill-joyn'd beings were And beneath quia corpore in uno Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia siccis Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus ' cause in one Masse The cold things fought with hot the moist with dry The soft with hard the light with contrary Indeed as he affirms the World to have risen from the Chaos he immediately subjoyns Hane Deus melior litem natura diremit God and prevailing Good broke off this Strife But how far this jarring Discord was taken away according to what we may reason from second Causes and what Effects must have been produc'd by them upon the framing of a World must be consider'd by us It must not then be thought that when the Chaos came to be separated in order to the framing of a World all the homogenious Bodies or pure Elements were rang'd by themselves a pure Element being a pure Chimaera no such thing in Nature Indeed if such a Separation had been made whereas there was a Mutiny before in the Chaos this would have establish'd a Peace but such a Peace that no habitable World nor any Animal Vegitable or Mineral Productions could then have been The Elements then upon the separation of the Chaos must have been mixt and blended together according to such Proportions as to be able to produce such Effects as the prime Author design'd them for therefore when we consider his design was a World should be produc'd qualifi'd for the Production Support and Propagation of those varieties of Species we find in Nature and withal reflect what the Quantities and Qualities of those Elements were and are which chiefly concern us in this Discourse viz. The Earth and Waters we shall soon find how this habitable Earth and the Sea thence arose All the Water which the Author does account for in Nature as I shall have occasion to set forth in the sequel does not amount to enough to make an Orb of Water to cover the Earth as it lies in an even Convexity with the Sea a quarter of a Mile deep and what is this to the vast Body of the other Element the Earth Not comparably so much as a Sheet of the thinnest Paper laid on a Globe of three foot diameter adds in thickness to that Globe Indeed notwithstanding this disproportion if the Earth when it first settled from the Chaos had been an homogenious Body without any Principle of Motion in it arising from Ferments through the Contrariety of Natures therein contein'd the Waters must have cover'd it as Moses seems to intimate it did Gen. 1. but when those Ferments quickned by the ordinary concourse of the first Cause not to insist here on a miraculous fiat came to exert their Force can we think that less Effects could be wrought than the production of Mountains and a Sea Channel such inconsiderable Nothings to the Body which produces them the greatest Mountains on the Earth being no more in proportion to the Earth than the slightest Dust on a Globe of three foot diameter is in proportion to that Globe as the ingenious French Author of a late Book entituled De L'Origine des Fountaines has well made appear where he has likewise shewn that the little Protuberances on an Orange which are usually compar'd to the Mountains of the Earth are each of them a thousand times greater in proportion to that Fruit than any Mountain on the Earth is in proportion to that Globe We find that many very small vegetable Seeds contain a protrusive Principle in them able to raise Bodies by degrees containing many Tuns weight and can we doubt but the primigenial Earth fermented with the Seeds of all things in it had a force able to produce the Effects mention'd And tho the Author seems to smile at those who have held that Mountains have been cast up as Mole-hills or produc'd as Wens on the Body of Man I know not whether it may be so easie to shew a Disparity and why the one is not as possible and as probable as the other for if the vastness of the Body will afford it and there be a proportional mover neither of which I think any Man has reason to question in the Earth I know not why the Earth may not be judg'd better able to produce the one than the Mole or Man's Body the others I well know that all Antiquity I mean it of those who held the World had a gradual beginning from a Chaos abets this Theory as I have stated it and the feign'd Story of the Gyant Typhoëus if it contains any natural deduction relates here Typhoëus being that Enormontick Spirit if I may so call it or that protrusive Impetus still reigning in the Chaos through Ferments Winds and Inflamations and causing the present Unevenesses in the Earth and the retiring of the Waters into a Sea-Channel till at length all things being set in their apt State Jupiter or a meet temperies of
the following Passage Page 3. He says thus There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the universal Deluge or discovered from the Contemplation of the Earth that there had been such a thing already in Nature 'T is true they often talk of an Alternation of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth but they speak of them as things to come at least they give no Proof or Argument of any that have already destroy'd the World And beneath As to the Conflagration in particular this has always been reckon'd among the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks That the World was to be destroyed by Fire and their Books are full of this Notion but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration nor what preparations there are in Nature or will be toward that great Change And we may generally observe this of the Ancients that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions than in Demonstrations they had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premises or Proofs which is an Argument with me that the knowledg they had was not a thing of their own Invention or which they came to by fair Reasoning and Observation upon Nature but was deliver'd to them from others by Tradition and ancient Fame sometimes more publick sometimes more secret these Conclusions they kept in mind and Communicated to those of their School or Sect or Posterity without knowing for the most part the just Grounds and Reasons of them On this Passage I have the following Particulars to offer 1. We have no reason to expect that the Greeks or Latins should have given any Account of the Deluge in Noah's time unless we will allow the Deluge of the Ancient Ogyges which is said to have lasted nine months to have been the same with that of Noah for they pretend not to have any Records farther than that Ogyges wherefore all things among the Greeks which Antiquity had worn out of date were call'd Ogygia And if haply they had any thing of times before it came very obscurely to them whence they call'd the Ante-Ogygian Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was only what they had by Hearsay of the Egyptians or other Nations Those who have made any mention of the universal Deluge under Noah are The Sibyl in Lactantius de Ira Dei c. 23. Xenophon de Equivocis Fabius Pictor de Aureo Seculo Cato de Originibus Archilochus the Greek who introduces also the Testimony of Moses in his Book de Temporibus Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities from Mnaseas Hierom of Egypt and Berosus the Chaldean Alexander Polyhistor and Abydenus in Cyril's first Book against Julian Plato in his Timaeus Ovid and others of the Poets confound the Deluge of Noah with that of Deucalion describing this as general which in regard they must have known to have been particular I judg the scope of their Discourse chiefly tended to a moral or divine Institution the historical Narratson in itself being not true And Servius tells us that by a Deluge and Emphytheosis the Ancients understood a Change and a Melioration of times and we know Deluges were still introduc'd in the Iron age after a total corruption of Manners 2. As to Alterations by Deluges and Conflagrations which the Author intimates the Ancients to have held only by Tradition without finding by the Earth that any such things had been and without considering any Causes and Preparations in Nature for them I find it to be otherwise First I think it plain enough among the ancient Philosophers tho unobserv'd by the Author that they discover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth there had been already such a thing as a general Deluge at least successively so as the Waters of the Sea had some time or other cover'd the whole face of the Earth Thus Ovid introduces Pythagoras saying Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago Conchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus Anchora summis Quodque fuit campus vallum decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor c. I 've seen what was most solid Earth before Become a Sea the Sea become a Shore Far from the Sea Sea-Cocles often lie And Anchors old are found on Mountains high Land-floods have made a Valley of a Plain And brought a Mountain with them to the Main And there you may read much more to the same purpose and all ancient Histories as well as modern tell us of such marine Bodies found on Mountains some urging them as Arguments for such Changes as there are learned Men now living who think they can demonstrate from such Bodies found on Mountains at all distances from the Sea that there is no part of the Land now appearing but has sometime been cover'd by the Sea I could produce much matter on this Argument were it not that I am unwilling to anticipate here what I have thoughts of setting forth in a particular Tract Again as for Causes of those Changes we find that Seneca a Master among the Stoicks describing an universal Deluge assigns Causes for them The sum of his Reasoning is thus He examines whether an universal Deluge will be caus'd by the overflowing of the Sea or by continual Rains or by the eruption of new Fountains and concludes it will be by all three joyn'd together and that nothing is difficult to Nature when she hastens to her end In the rise of things she uses a gentle effort and carries them on towards their perfection by unperceivable degrees but when the time of their Dissolution comes it 's done all on a sudden as he exemplifies in Animals and so he says Cities are long building and Woods long growing but reduc'd to Ashes in a few hours Therefore when that fatal Day shall come many Causes will act together There will be a general Concussion of the Earth opening new Sources of Waters continued and violent Rains whence at length the Snows heap'd up on Mountains for many Ages will be dissolv'd whereby the Rivers greatly swelling and forc'd by Tempests will overflow their Channels and by their rapid course carry all before them and many times their courses to the Sea being damn'd up they will return back and drown whole Countries mean while the immoderate Rains continuing the Winter Season encroaching on the Summer and the Seas being mightily increas'd by the vast discharges of the overflowing Rivers and being infested with violent Tempests they will find their Channel too narrow for them and overflow the Land forcing the Rivers back in a tempestuous manner towards their Sources and so at length bury the whole Earth in Waters unless happily for a time some of the Mountains may here and there stand as scatter'd Islands but at last there being a general Effort in the Waters as at
been unsuccessful and so for his Tehom Rabba or the great Abysse of Moses which he has also much urg'd and for any other Passages he has quoted To come to the Author's third Proof which is from Reason and the Contemplation of the Chaos whence the Earth rose this Proof in effect is not only for making out that the Earth as it rose from a Chaos in its first state was of a different Form from the present Earth according to the Authors first Proposition but withall is partly for shewing that the Face of the first Earth was smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and a Sea as he has set forth in his second Proposition wherefore the scope of it being connected with the Motions Progress and Separations which he supposes to have pass'd in the Chaos for forming the first Earth I shall briefly state them both together as he has represented them He supposes then the Chaos as a fluid Masse or a Masse of all sorts of little Parts or Particles of the Matter of which the World was made mixt together and floating in confusion one with another Hence he says there follows an impossibility that this Masse should be of such a Form and Figure as the Surface of our present Earth is Or that any Concretion or consistent State which this Mass could flow into immediately or first settle in could be of the said Figure He proves the first of these Assertions because a fluid Mass always casts it self into a smooth and spherical Surface He proves the second Assertion because when any fluid Body comes to settle in a consistent and firm State that Concretion in its first State of Consistence must be of the same Form that the Surface was when it was liquid as when Water congeals the Surface of the Ice is smooth and level as the Water was before And hence when he has consider'd the broken condition of the present Earth both as to its Surface and inward Parts he concludes that the Form of it now cannot be the same with that it had originally which must have been smooth regular and uniform according to his Second Proposition And to make this clear he sets forth the Motions and Progress which he supposes must have pass'd in the Chaos and how it settled it self in the said Form when it became an habitable World 1. First therefore he presents us with a Scheme which represents the Chaos as is before express'd viz. as a spherical and fluid Masse containing the Particles of all the Matter of which the World is compos'd mixt together and floating in confusion in it 2. The first Change which he conceives must happen in this Masse must be that the heaviest and grossest parts would subside towards the middle of it and there harden by degrees and constitute the interior Parts of the Earth while the rest of the Masse swimming above would be also divided by the same Principles of Gravity into two orders of Bodies the one like Water the other volatile like Air and that the watery part would settle in a Masse together under the Air upon the Body of the Earth composing not only a Water strictly so call'd but the whole Masse of Liquors or liquid Bodies belonging to the Earth and these Separations in the Body of the Chaos are represented to us in a second Scheme 3. The liquid Masse he says incircling the Earth being not the mere Element of Water but a Collection of all Liquors belonging to the Earth some of them must be fat oily and light others lean and more earthy like common Water Now these two kinds mixt together and left to themselves and the general action of Nature separate one from another when they come to settle which these must be concluded to have done the more oily and thin parts of the Masse getting above the other and swimming there as he represents in a third Figure 4. Next he considers that the Masses of the Air and Waters were both at first very muddy and impure so that they must both have their Sediments and there being abundance of little terrestrial Particles in the Air after the grossest were sunk down these lesser also and lighter remaining would sink too tho more slowly and in a longer time so as in their descent they would meet with that oily Liquor on the watery Masse which would entangle and stop them from passing farther whence mixing there with the unctious substance they compos'd a certain Slime or Fat soft and light Earth spread on the Face of the Waters as he shews in a fourth Figure 5. He says that when the Air was fully purg'd of its little earthy Particles upon their general descent they became wholly incorporate with the oily Liquor making both one Substance which was the first Concretion or firm and consistent Substance which rose upon the Face of the Chaos and fit to be made and really constituted an habitable Earth which he sets before us in a fifth Figure and which I have also subjoyn'd where A is the first Sediment of the Chaos B the Orb of Water or the Orb of the Abysse C the Orb which made the first habitable Earth 6. Having thus represented the Rise of the Earth from the Chaos he adds that whereas the Antients generally resemble the Earth to an Egg he thinks the Analogy holds as to those inward Envolvings represented in the Figure of the Earth and that the outward Figure of the first Earth was likewise oval it being a little extended toward the Poles which he represents to us in a sixth Figure and which I also here insert where as the two inmost Regions A B represent the Yolk and the Membrane that lies next above it so the exterior Region of the Earth D is as the Shell of the Egg and the Abysse C under it as the White that lies under the Shell This is the Author's Theory of the Earth in reference to the Composition of it as it settled from the Chaos in its first State which he says he has all along set forth according to the Laws of Gravity And this must now be consider'd by me First then If I should allow that the first Earth was form'd from a Chaos according to those Separations the Author has represented it would no way answer his chief End for which he gave it this Construction viz. The Capacity of causing a Deluge as I shall make appear in my Considerations on the next Chapter But tho I might be free to allow it as for any Deluge to be thence caus'd yet in other respects I must not do it because I take upon me to maintain that the World from its first Existence had Mountains a Sea and the like as it has now And both in reference to the Author's Argument from Reason viz. That all fluid Bodies and any first Concretion on them must keep to a sperical Figure whence he concludes the Earth on its first Concretion from the Chaos to have taken it and
the World compos'd these turbulent Commotions and put a stop to their exorbitant Efforts And this seems to me a more apt Explication of the original Formation of the World than that the Author would introduce I may farther here note that tho I think the original Formation of the World may be accounted for this way yet I am of opinion there is no Mountain on the Earth now that is an original Mountain or that existed when the World first rose and conclude with Aristotle that the Sea and Land have chang'd places and continue so to do and I think it not possible for any Man fairly to solve the Phaenomenon of marine Bodies found in Mountains by any other Principle especially by a Deluge caus'd as the Author has propos'd But it being not my business here to set for t a Theory of the Earth but only to shew the Inconsistency of the Author's Hypothesis I shall not enlarge at present in making out these things but refer them to a particular Tract I design to publish with what convenient speed I may the Demonstrations whereof will refer to certain Cuts taken from a Collection of Fossil's I have by me where I hope to satisfie the Author in some tolerable way concerning the Rise of Mountains Islands c. and to solve all the Objections he has made against their Rise any other way but what he has propos'd CHAP. VI. WE are now come to the main drift of the Author 's Undertaking viz. How the Deluge was caus'd And in this Chapter he proposes to shew that it happen'd upon the Dissolution of the first Earth and that the Form of the present Earth then rose from the Ruins of the first First then he here presents us with a Figure of the Earth all smooth on the Convex part as he conceivs it must necessarily have been as it rose from a Chaos the great Abysse suppos'd to be spread under it And next he supposes that at a time appointed by Providence this great Abysse was open'd or that the Frame of the Earth broke and it fell down into it And this he says would first cause an universal Deluge by the great Commotion and Agitation of the Abysse on the violent Fall of the Earth into it Then after the Agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Channels and the dry Land appear'd we should see the true Image of the present Earth in the Ruins of the first The Surface of the Globe he says would be thence divided into Sea and Land the Land would consist of Plains Valleys Mountains with Caverns containing subterraneous Waters c. The Sea would have Islands in it and Banks and shelfy Rocks on its Shoar c. And these things in the following parts of his Work he examins piece-meal but first here he considers the general Deluge and how aptly this Supposition represents it Supposing therefore it will be easily allow'd that such a Dissolution of the Earth would make an universal Deluge he enquires in what order and from what Causes the Frame of this exterior Earth was dissolv'd The great Cause he assigns for producing this great Effect is the continued Heat of the Sun which he supposes in the Antidiluvian World to have always mov'd in the Equinox there being then no Colds nor Rains nor Change of Seasons so that what by its parching Heat sucking out the Moisture of the Earth which was the Cement of its Parts and so drying it immoderately and causing it to cleave in sundry places and what by rarifying the Waters under the Earth into Vapours which would thence force a way for their Dilatation and Eruption he concludes the Dissolution followed He exemplifies his Doctrine first by an Aeolipile or an hollow Sphere with water in it which if the mouth of it be stopt which gives the vent the water when rarified by the heat of the fire will burst the Vessel with its force Secondly in an Egg which being heated before the fire the moisture and air within being rarified will burst the shell and he is the more free to instance this Comparison because he says when the Ancients speak of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg they say that after a certain period of time it was broken Thirdly In Earthquakes which generally he says arise from the like Causes and often end in a like effect viz. a partial Deluge or innundation of the place or Country where they happen which may naturally lead us to conceive that a general one has so come to pass Lastly He says the main difficulty propos'd was to find Waters sufficient to make an universal Deluge and that after sometime it should so return into its Channels that the Earth should become again habitable for according to the common Opinion he says it was impossible that such a quantity of waters should be any where found or be brought upon the Earth and then if it were brought that it should be again removed whereas this explication performs the same effect with a far less quantity of water which is easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done for he says when the Earth broke and fell into the Abyss a good part of it was cover'd by the meer depth of it and those parts of it that were higher than the Abyss was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm water were reacht and overtopt by the Waves during the agitation and violent commotions of the Abyss and to represent this commotion to us he supposes a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean and believes that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But if a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks a great Island or a Continent fall from that height the dashing must rise even to the highest Clouds and he thinks it is not to be wondred that the great tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months because besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abyss was extremely violent here were ever and anon some secondary ruins which made new Commotions lasting the time suppos'd till the waters by degrees were retreated the greatest part of them constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth And from things thus explain'd he concludes that this third and last Proposition is made out viz. That the disruption of the Abyss or Dissolution of the primeval Earth and its fall into the Abyss was the cause of the universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World I have been the more particular in stating this part of the Theory because the main point under debate is here contain'd which I must now examine The Causes assign'd by the Author for such a dissolution of the Earth as is mention'd do not seem to me so
competent as would be expected for such a Work The Sun doubtless supposing as the Author does that in the Antedilunian World it always kept in the Aequinox there being no Rains Cold nor changes of Seasons would heat dry and cleave the Earth in some parts especially in the Torrid Zone considerably but withal it must be consider'd how far the action of the Sun could penetrate for producing the effect propos'd it s known that if a Wall be heated red hot on one side it still continues cold on the other It s also a known Experiment that a good Thermometer plac'd in a subterraneous Grotto of an ordinary depth scarce varies perceivably in the hottest day of Summer and the coldest day of Winter how then shall the Sun penetrate three miles and three quarters deep into the Earth for so deep the Author seems to suppose his Orb of Earth to have been as I shall by and by shew and heat an Abyss of waters lying under it so as to rarifie it into vapours Qui queat hic subter tam crasso corpore terram Percoquere humorem calido sociare vapori Praesertim cùm vix possit per septa domorum Insinnare suum radiis ardentibus aestum And indeed Heat being not essentially in the Sun but an effect of the light by whose beams its imparted to us where Light is excluded Heat also must of course The Grotto where no operation of the Suns Heat is found has an open passage into it for the Suns operation if it could there exert it whereas the Author supposes the Antediluvian Earth to have been one continued substance without so much as a Cavern in it Again we must consider of what nature the Torrid Zone must have been and the Author in his second Book concludes it a sandy Desart if so Sand is not inclinable to cleave but soon fills up any Cleft made in it as I believe may be observ'd in all the sandy Desarts now extant and if Rocks are suppos'd under the Sands certainly horizondal beds of Rocks as all must have then have been are not liable to the Suns penetration at least by any perceivable Heat and indeed let the nature of it be what it might it comes much to the same thing and every Man who has us'd himself underground knows how little the Sun has to do with its Heat there Now tho the continued Equinox Heat then suppos'd may seem to aggravate the matter there must have been at least a vicissitude of days and nights and those still of equal length so that the Earth would be always cool'd in the night as well as heated in the day Moreover tho the Author supposes his Antediluvian Rivers to terminate as they came to the parts on each side the Torrid Zone being partly exhal'd by the Sun and partly absorpt in the Sands yet their waters must necessarily have pass'd in the Sands under Ground through the parts of the Torrid Zone which would soon fill up any clefts there made by the Sun I say the Waters must have pass'd so because his Antediluvian Earth must have been porous to percolate waters to all parts otherwise its impossible the Inhabitants in the temperate Zones should have been supply'd with waters to serve their necessary uses by Wells for no Man can indulge Fancy so far as to think the Antediluvian Rivers could have been so thick and near enough each other to afford a convenient supply for the Inhabitants of all the parts of the habitable Earth Men think it now very burthensom to fetch water a mile or two as in some places they are forc'd to do by their Situation remote from Waters and I hope it will not be said that the Rivers were then within a mile or two or ten or hundreds sometimes of each other As to the Comparisons brought in by the Author of the Aeolipile and the Egg which are broken when the moisture within them is rarified and turn'd into vapours by the heat of the fire I answer that when it shall appear to us that the Sun could cause an Heat in the waters of the Abyss proportional to what the others have when broken we may consider more of it mean while such an effect is so far from falling within my Conception that I look upon it in Nature impossible And as to the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Mundane Egg 's breaking I shall consider it in the second Book tho I may so far take notice of it here that whereas the Author here intimates as tho the Ancients by mentioning the Mundane Egg 's breaking referr'd to a Deluge its being caus'd that way the contrary is manifest to us for we know it was a general Opinion amongst the Ancients that the World had been renewed by many Deluges and Conflagrations whereas if one Deluge had been caus'd by such a disruption of the Earth any second or third Deluge had been impossible But what is most urg'd is that the generality of Earthquakes arise from like Causes and often end in a like effect viz. a partial Deluge or Inundation of the Place or Country where they happen To this I answer that tho some Philosophers assign the Causes of Earthquakes after this manner viz. That the strugling of Vapours rais'd and rarify'd by the Sun in the Earth sometimes cause a Disruption the Earth thereupon subsiding into Caverns whence Waters flow forth c. yet it would be hard to expect that Men should generally so far acquiesce in this Cause as to allow it a fair ground to build an Hypothesis of this weighl upon When as a great if not the greatest part of Philosophers assign other Causes for Earthquakes and those perhaps more probable Some will have Earthquakes to be caus'd only by certain Conjunctions of the Planets some by the Motion of Comets near the Earth others by subterraneous Fires or Ferments which truly produce Heats and Vapors within the Earth the Sun having nothing to do in it more than by a remote and general Causality others will have them produc'd by the Motion of subterraneous Waters others again by certain Moulderings or Founderings in certain Caverns of the Earth and other Causes are assign'd for them Lastly When the Author comes to the main Difficulty as he calls it viz. The finding of Waters sufficient to make an universal Deluge which after some time should so return into its Channels that the Earth should become again habitable both which he says are as easily effected according to his Explication set down before by me as they are impossible any other way I confess I greatly admire at this his Assertion and the Explanation he gives for those Effects The first thing we should have expected from the Author in reference to this Point is that he should have signified to us of what Depth he supposes his Abysse to have been and what Thickness he allows to his Orb of Earth for unless we will reason by rote it must be
upon a due consideration of these things that we must conclude of what Effects could follow upon the suppos'd disruption in reference to a Deluge and the forming of the present Earth as he will have it thence and indeed if any Person proposes a Theory or an Hypothesis and the Propositions he advances to build his Doctrine upon be not either self-evident or demonstrated by him the first thing he ought to do is to lay down his Postulata that a Man may clearly see how he adjusts his Reasonings upon them But to talk of a Body to be drown'd and not to give us the Dimensions of the Body and of the Water to effect it seems to me to have neither top nor bottom in it and no more than to say such a thing must be done but God Almighty knows how We find the Author has been diligent enough in shewing what Quantities of Waters would be required to make a Deluge where he writes against the Opinions of others and it seems but Justice that he should have been as careful in setting down what Quantities would be requisit according to his own He saw there was no proper way to refute their Opinion but by a particular Examination of what Quantities of Waters would be requisite to make a Deluge according as they fancy'd it and then to shew that if such a Quantity of Waters were once brought on the Earth it would be impossible for the Earth to get rid of them again so as to make an habitable World And if he would help us to conceive how a Deluge should happen and the present Phoenomena of the Earth be solv'd consequentially to it I see not why he should be backward to assign us some possible Proportions of his Orbs of Earth and Waters in order to it unless which I cannot think he had rather involve Men in erroneous Thoughts by offering only unlimited Generals and make them fancy a possibility where there is none It 's the business of Philosophy to possess us with clear and explicit Notions of things and not to imbroil us in such as are confus'd and obscure I may allow what the Author says in his Answer to Mr. Warren That when the Nature of a thing admits a Latitude the original Quantity is left to be determin'd by the Effects and the Hypothesis stands good if neither any thing antecedent nor any present Phoenomena can be alledg'd against it But I cannot see that the Nature of this thing admits of a Latitude so that the present Phoenomena of the Earth may not be alledg'd against it And I believe if Cartes had suppos'd a Deluge to have been caus'd as the Author does on the Disruption of his Earth whereas he supposes only the Rise of Mountains a Sea and the like by it the Conceptions of which may admit of a Latitude in some more tolerable way but all Men would have justly expected he should have assign'd Proportions to his Orbs and I am so far from thinking that any Latitude assignable to Proportions of such Orbs can be here admitted that I am of opinion when any Man shall assign any Proportion whatsoever to an Abysse Orb for causing a Deluge as the Author proposes I shall always be ready to shew him either his Abysse Orb to be so shallow that the Hypothesis cannot swim in it or so deep that it must drown in it Now tho the Author has not assign'd particular Proportions to his Orbs as it might have been wisht yet he has offer'd some Suggestions by which we may guess what he would be at concerning them What therefore I have gather'd from him in disperst Notions in his Work in reference to those Proportions is as follows First He tells us in his first Book p. 77. and p. 84. and again p. 127. That all the Waters which were contained in the great Abysse are now contained in the Sea Channel and the Caverns of the Earth Secondly In this same Book p. 10. he computes the Sea to cover half the Globe of the Earth and that taking one part of the Sea with another it makes a quarter of a Mile depth throughout Thirdly In this same Book p. 15. he says that if the Earth should disgorge all the Waters it has in its Bowels it would not amount to above half an Ocean From these three Assertions we find that the great Abysse which he supposes for causing a Deluge must have contain'd only an Orb of Waters not a quarter of a Mile depth as it was couch'd on the Face of the first ediment of the Chaos which is suppos'd by him to be of a ponderous compact Substance and not containing Waters within it And so much for the Proportion of his Abysse As to the Thickness he allows to his Orb of Earth I gather it from him as follows First In his Second Book p. 273. he says that the whole primaeval Earth in which the Seat of Paradise was was really seated much higher than the present Earth and may be reasonably suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of our Mountains are now Secondly He has suppos'd in this First Book p. 11. that some of the Mediterranean Mountains taken with the general Acclivity of the Earth from the level of the Sea make two Miles in height above the said level or at least he does not there except against this Computation as he has occasion to mention it tho for his satisfaction I shall state also other Proportions to his Earth beneath to see what will follow upon it and I believe all learned Men will allow this Proportion To this I must add that tho he has not nam'd what depth he allows to the Sea I must conclude that he allows it two Miles deep as learned Men generally judg it to be where he supposes his Abysse to end part of the first Sediment of the Chaos receiving the Waters of the Sea upon it And thus we find from the top of the highest Mountains to the bottom of the suppos'd Abysse in the deepest parts of the Sea we have four Miles as we may say in view or at least agreed to by our Author and all learned Men and that whereas he allows near a quarter of a Mile to the depth of his Abysse as I have shewn before so his Orb of Earth must have been at least three Miles and three quarters in thickness All these things being thus establish'd let us now consider how a Deluge could be hence made according to the Description of Moses If I should but present a Scheme here according to those Proportions allowing a quarter of a Mile to the Abysse Orb and three Miles and three quarters to the Orb of Earth I believe any Man at first looking on it as to any Deluge to be thence caus'd must cry out Impossibility The Abysse Orb being but the twelfth part of the other without counting what must additionally accrue to the Orb of Earth from its much larger Circumference
as being the upper Orb. The Author ascribes the cause of the Deluge to the Violence of the Commotion of the Abysse upon the fall of the Earth into it and to represent to us what this Commotion must be he supposes a Stone of a vast weight carried up a Mile or two in the Air and let fall and tells us to what a vast height Waters must then be conceiv'd to fly But I cannot allow this Instance to be fairly brought in If a Painter be to draw a Ceiling-Piece in a Room of an high roof we may allow him to draw the Picture of a Man there suppose much bigger than the natural that it might deceive our Eye to its advantage when viewing it at that distance it takes it in a proportion to the Life But to suppose a Rock an Island or a Continent as he says two Miles high in the Air and to conceive how high Waters would be thrown upon their fall into the Sea why shall this be done to deceive our Reason When the Antediluvian Earth is suppos'd before not to have been suspended in the Air but couch'd close on the Face of the Abysse as is represented by him in his Scheme of the disruption of the Earth Fig. I. p. 135. it being quite a different thing for a Body couch'd on the Face of Waters to subside in them and for it to fall into them from an height Again when part of the Orb of Earth subsided into the Abysse there was no room for the Waters of the Abysse to diverge whereas when any Weight is thrown into a River or the open Sea the Waters may fly off every way And indeed I think it manifest enough that upon the subsiding of any part of such an Orb of Earth in a manner all the Waters that could rise thereupon upon must have been contain'd either in the Chasms or hollow places of its broken parts and that never any could come to make a Deluge on the higher parts of the Earth Besides it 's absolutely contrary to Moses's Narration to make a Deluge by such flights of Water in the Air Moses telling us how the Waters rose and fell gradually and that they exceeded the highest Mountains fifteen Cubits the Author's Explication of it being so forc'd and unnatural that perhaps in so plain a Text it was not fit to be put upon so great a Prophet But to put the matter beyond dispute supposing the Proportions before laid down to the Orbs of the Abysse and the Earth we find a Mile and three quarters of the Orb of Earth missing for if the Sea be allow'd but two Miles in depth as learned Men generally judg it to be and that the Abysse there ends on the first Sediment of the Chaos as the Author supposes we have then in Nature but as much Earth as will make an Orb of two Miles in thickness as I shall shew beneath and what then is become of the other Mile and three quarters Earth The next thing we have to consider is this notwithstanding all the Suppositions of the Author before set down when we come to view the Schemes he has given in his Book we find that contrary to his said Suppositions in all of them he has represented his Abysse-Orb thicker than his Orb of Earth so that counting the more large extent of the Orb of Earth as being the upper Orb and the thickness of the Abysse Orb which lies under it we may judg them to be of equal contents in their Dimensions as you may see in the Scheme before given you And I believe a Reader who should peruse his Book cursorily not finding the Proportions of his two Orbs clearly stated and perhaps not minding the Suppositions before set down which the Author was forct by the necessity of the Argument to make on several occasions when he came to view this Scheme of his or the others would have concluded that the Author really suppos'd his two Orbs of the Proportions he here represents as indeed it is but a blind Put upon our Eye as well as our Reason if he did not Now tho I must declare I cannot comprehend how this can stand with the Author's Suppositions as I conceive they are before set down I am content to suppose as all his Schemes seem to import that the Orbs of the Earth and of the Abysse were in their Contents of equal Dimensions and we shall examin what thereupon could follow in order to a Deluge I suppose then that the Antediluvian Earth contain'd an Orb of two Miles deep or as much as would make two Miles deep if it were coucht on the bottom of the Abysse as it then was on the surface of it and that the Orb of the Abysse contain'd two Miles in depth likewise for I suppose here with the Author as before that the two Orbs together made four Miles in height This being suppos'd when the Earth broke and made a Deluge I ask what became of the two Miles Water The Author tells us that the Sea contains a quarter of a Mile depth in Water over half the Globe of the Earth and says that if the Earth should disgorge all the Waters it has besides in its Bowels it would not make half an Ocean and he tells us again and again that all the Waters of the Abysse are contain'd in the Sea and in the Caverns of the Earth What then is become of the other Mile and three quaters Water Having thus demonstratively refuted as I conceive the Author's whole Hypothesis both according to the Proportions he seems to have given to his Orbs in his Schemes or to have otherwise intimated them to have been in his Work I shall urge the matter a little farther and plainly shew it impossible either for the Author or any Man else to assign any Proportions whatsoever to such Orbs that a Deluge and the Form of the present Earth should be thence caus'd supposing only as the Learned generally do that the Sea is two Miles deep in its deepest part where the Author will have his Abysse to end on the first Sediment of the Chaos For then I say first I conceive Men will generally agree with what the Author has before laid down viz. That there is in Nature but Water enough to make an Orb of a quarter of a Mile depth on the first Sediment of the Chaos And secondly As to the Proportion which must be allow'd to the Orb of Earth it 's manifest to us that since it 's two Miles from the level of the Sea to the deepest part of it and since it 's all Earth in all parts of the Globe to that depth except what the Waters in the Sea and in the Caverns of the Earth do amount to which is but enough to make an Orb but of a quarter of a Mile depth round the Earth a good part of which Orb will also be countervail'd by that part of the Earth which is above the level of the Sea it
that the common Laws of motion and gravity by which the Author pretends to establish his Hypothesis have no place here I may add that it 's the general Opinion of Divines that nothing of those things which God has made by himself and without the concurrence of any other Cause will ever have an end or total dissolution as the Author intimates this dissolution of the Earth to be for want of Principles in them sufficient for their eternal support tho God by his meer will may put an end to them or dissolve them as he pleases and therefore as the Earth and other Elements were made by God in the Beginning so according to their natures they will remain for ever without any destruction or dissolution as to the whole tho they may undergo some partial Changes And in reference to this the learned Vallesius on that passage of Esdras Considera ergo tu quoniam minori staturâ estis prae his qui ante vos qui post vos minori quam vos quasi jam senescentes creaturae fortitudinem juventutis praetereuntes Says but neither is that fourth Book of Esdras receiv'd by Divines nor could that Opinion ever down with me for the World has Ages according to divine Ordinations and the account of Times which God has with himself but not according to Nature since neither its rise was from Nature nor will its destruction so happen Indeed it may be that this or that little part of the Earth drain'd by long culture and sowing may decay but not the whole Earth neither does any little part of it ever so decay as things which really grow old so that it can never after resume its strength and as it were wax young again but all things pass away and return in a certain Circle according to all and each of their parts according to all by vicissitudes some being decay'd others render'd more fertile according to each each of them being alternately decay'd and restor'd And indeed the Learned Dr. Hakewill in his Apology has so well clear'd the Point against a general decay in the World that I think it past time of Day now to have it brought in question so that such a dissolution in the Earth tending to its general decay as the Author intimates may not be admitted I shall conclude this Chapter by observing that besides the miraculous Providence which the Author allows in the saving of the Ark his Hypothesis forces him to introduce two or three Miracles more as I shall shew in the Second Book Whence we shall find that what he has endeavour'd to save in one great Miracle he has been forc't to make out in little ones CHAP. IX NOW the Author comes to prove his Theory from the Effects and present Form of the Earth and in this Ninth Chapter after having observ'd that the most considerable and remarkable things that occur in the Fabrick of this present Earth are First subterraneous Cavities and subterraneous Waters Secondly the Channel of the great Ocean Thirdly Mountains and Rocks He proceeds to give an account of these according to his Hypothesis Beginning with subterraneous Cavities and Waters Saying that those Cavities were made upon the general Dissolution of the Earth according as the broken Fragments variously fell into hollow and broken Postures and that the subterraneous Waters are parts of the Abysse the Pillars and Foundations of the present Earth standing immerst in it Now I have shewn before that such an Orb of Earth and Dissolution of it on the Face of the Abysse for causing Noah's Deluge as the Author has suppos'd was impossible and consequently his Explanation here of subterraneous Cavities and Waters cannot hold I might add some things here for shewing the necessity of subterraneous Caverns in the Antediluvian Earth which the Author denies to have been But because in the following Chapters I shall shew the necessity of a Sea and Mountains in those times the Uses of which may be more conspicuous I shall pass by the Cavities at present CHAP. X. HEre the Author treats concerning the Sea-Channel and the Original of it the Causes of its irregular Form and unequal Depths as also of the Original of Islands their Situation and Properties He exaggerates much in the Description of the Sea-Chanel where amongst other things he says thus p. 128. When I present this great Gulph to my Imagination emptied of all its Waters naked and gaping at the Sun stretching its Jaws from one end of the Earth to another it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature And again p. 131. If we should suppose the Ocean dry and if we look't down from the top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell how horridly and barbarously would it look And with what Amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell or a wide bottomless Pit So deep and hollow and vast so broken and confus'd so every way deform'd and monstrous c. To this I must say as far as I can conceive of the Sea-Channel if it were empty and had a Sword upon it and Trees as the Land has I can fancy no other Prospect could be there than what the Earth now affords us We have Mountains now that appear as high to us as perhaps any would if we then stood in any part of the Sea-Channel and so for any other suppos'd Unevennesses Indeed to look upon many places of it naked without a Sword on them might not seem so well so draw off the Skin from the most beautious Creature on the Earth and see how it will look as for other Ghastliness I fancy none for when all is said it is but a Veil spread over half the Earth allow'd to afford a quarter of a Mile depth to the Sea taking one place with another thorowout and not being above two Miles deep at the deepest part and what is this in a Philosophical Consideration when compar'd with the vast Body it lies upon It 's a place fit to receive such a poor Lake as the Sea otherwise not worth naming being not comparably so much to the Body of the Earth as the thickness of a Leaf of the thinnest Paper drawn from one half part of a Globe of three feet Diameter takes from the bulk of that Globe Next the Author tells us there are three things particularly to be consider'd concerning the Sea-Channel viz. It s general Irregularity the vast Hollowness of its Cavity and the Declivity of its sides which lie shelving tho with some Unevenness from top to bottom And these he thinks may be aptly explain'd according to his Hypothesis by the fall of the Earth and are not explainable any other way and he gives us two Figures for representing the Fall of the Earth to effect these things The like he says for the Rise of original Islands which he counter-distinguishes from such as are factitious these being made either by the Aggestion of Sands or the Sea 's leaving the tops
of some shallow places that lie high or by a Divulsion from some Continent or a Protrusion from the bottom of the Sea And he gives us also one Figure to represent the Rise of those original Islands according to his said Hypothesis To this I answer That the Causes he has given for these Phaenomena relating to the Sea Channel are well assign'd consequentially to his Hypothesis but as I have already shewn a failure in his Hypothesis those causes cannot be true neither shall I be more particular on them But as the Author has excluded a Sea from his Antediluvian Earth I shall set down a few Reasons to shew the necessity of a Sea from the beginning of the World First then we find a necessity of admitting a Sea from the beginning for the support of Sea-Animals and Vegetables which we cannot judg but to have been from the beginning For supposing that the Authority of Moses who tells us of a Sea and great Whales c. from the beginning should be evaded I would ask whether all Sea-Animals and Vegetables were created de novo after the Deluge or whether they were kept in the Antediluvian Rivers or in the Abysse First to say they were then created de novo or that their Seeds had been preserv'd in the Antediluvian World till they exerted their Powers at the Deluge it would no way be admitted For this were in effect to exclude in a manner half the Creation in reference to Plants and Animals from the Antediluvian Earth the Sea being the most fertile of all the parts of the World the generative Faculty being no where so luxuriant as there Secondly they could not live in the suppos'd Antediluvian Rivers which in all probability must have been all fresh and without any Saltness in them as I shall shew in the next Chapter And again when we consider the various Genius's of Fishes we find it inconsistent for them to have liv'd in those Rivers For as Philo says all marine Animals receive not their Being in all places some love a moorish and shallow Sea some Ditches and Ports neither passing up into the Land nor swimming far from the Sea shoar some living in the deep Seas shun Islands Rocks and Promontories running out into the Sea and others are delighted in calm and quiet Seas others in tempestuous so that being exercis'd with continual tossings and striving against the Surges they become stronger and fatter c. Now how all these Dispositions and a multitude of others could be answer'd in the Antediluvian Rivers or the Abysse I see not The like may be said of all Birds living always on the Sea Coasts and feeding on Sea Animals and the like of Vegetables which grow no where but in or by the Sea Thirdly as to the Abysse certainly the Birds could not be preserv'd there if it be said that the Fishes or Sea-Plants could I desire one Instance in natural History where any Animal or Vegetable has been found living twenty Fathoms deep in the Earth where there has not been a Communication to the day I well know there are some Fishes I cannot say Vegetables living in some subterraneous Rivers and Lakes which have such a Communication a I speak of but none otherwise To conclude the Author in his Answer to Mr. Warren finding himself urg'd against the living of Fishes in the Abysse through its closeness instances that a Child can live many Months shut up in the Mothers Belly where he says there is Closeness and Darkness in the highest degree and thinks it likely that the Fishes were less active and agile in the Abysse than they are now and that their Life was more sluggish then and their Motions more slow as being still in the Womb of Nature that was broke up at the Deluge and that they had Air enough for their imperfect way of breathing in that state and that possibly they might have some Passages in their Bodies open'd at the Disruption of the Abysse when they were born into the free Air which were not open'd before c. To this I reply that it 's one thing what a Man is forc't to say consequentially to an Hypothesis which he proposes to introduce and another what Reason dictates to him upon free Thought And I believe if the Author's Hypothesis would permit him to be open and candid he must own that such an Abysse could be no probable nor possible Habitation for Fishes As for the Instance of the Child in the Mothers Belly where the Author says there is Closeness and Darkness in the highest degree we know it to be otherwise the Mother being a living and breathing Animal and having a Body freely perspirable the Envelopings also with which the Infant is encompast being very thin nor can the Child subsist if the Mother dies Now what Analogy with this has an Orb of dead Earth a Mile or two thick with which the Abysse is suppos'd to be invested where the Fishes are said to live Again how unnatural is it for the Author to make the Fishes in the Antediluvian Paradisiacal times to be in an embrionate imperfect state so that the Whale could not sport himself by spouting up Waters nor the Nautili sayl before the Wind nor any Fishes divert themselves according to their Genius and what they enjoy in this pitiful degenerate World So that at a time when all things on the Earth are suppos'd to have flourisht in a degree far transcending the present the poor Fishes which least deserv'd it lay under a double Curse being wholly pent up in a dark Dungeon impervious to the Light and Air as great Blessings as the World affords and having no Food but by preying on each other whereas now besides Vegetables growing in the Seas they have good Supplies by what the Rivers bring them besides other good Contingencies from the Shoars I must confess that I know nothing forct and unnatural in an Hypothesis if this be not so Next we must consider the Necessity of a Sea in reference to its Use as to the Earth and to pass by its Use for Navigation which is generally suppos'd not to have been practis'd in the Antediluvian times we find that the Antients unanimously plac'd the Sea all along the torrid Zone many of them saying that the Body of the Sun and other Planets and Stars were refresht and nourisht by the Moisture thence drawn But however we may look upon this Opinion we must still say with the Poet Sed rapidus Titan ponto sua lumina pascens And that one of the chiefest Actions of the Sun's Rayes on this inferior Globe is to raise Waters from the Seas to be pass'd thence by the Winds on all the parts of the Earth to qualifie the Air for the Promotion Refreshment and Support of Vegetable and Animal Productions and hence as Plutarch says Homer in the Battle opposes Neptune to Apollo and hence Juno is said to have been born and brought up in the Island Samos
and to have been educated by Oceanus and Tethys or by the Oceanine Nymphs the Air being chiefly fed by the Sea-Waters rarify'd And indeed it seems much more natural to me that the great Magazine of waters for supplying all the parts of the Earth should in good measure be plac't on that part of it where the strongest Action of the Sun is than to make it near the Poles where its Rays have little or no Effect or in places remote from the said part It 's true the Author may say the Waters are brought round again from the Poles to the Parts near the torrid Zone by the Rivers and that the Rivers terminating there these parts were all plashy and moorish whence the Sun might as well raise Waters to supply the Earth as from the Sea But still I say it 's unnatural not to place Waters where the strongest Action of the Sun is and again I cannot think those other Waters would serve the turn they being all fresh whereby notwithstanding their flowing a general Corruption must have follow'd in them as also in regard they were not refresht by Rains and frequent Fountains passing into them at certain distances as now Neither do I conceive they could have aptly maintain'd a Vegetation and Propagation of Species in Plants and Animals And I make no doubt but if the Uses of the Sea were duly inspected and stated its Waters as now qualifi'd with an highly fermented Brackishness would be found of as necessary use in carrying on the Oeconomy of the Macrocosm as the bilous pancreatick splenetick and other Juyces are for performing the like Office in the Body of Man or indeed as the learned Palaeopolitanus says to take the Sea from the Earth were the same as to drein an Animal of his Heart Blood To this we may add that if the concurrent Vote of all the Men of Sense of Antiquity signifies any thing they are unanimous in the Assertion of a Sea from the beginning so as a Commentator on Aristotle has truly observ'd that all those who have held the World Eternal held the Sea so too and all those that held the World to have had a beginning held the Sea to have existed together with it And we know that Neptune was always held an Antediluvian God and so we know the famous Division of the World betwixt the three Brothers Jupiter commanding the Air Neptune the Sea and Dis or Pluto the inward Regions of the Earth And indeed we find the Ancients so fond of a Sea that scarce any of them describe a terrestrial Paradise but mention the Sea with it CHAP. XI THIS Chapter treats concerning the Mountains of the Earth their greatness and irregular Form their Situation Causes and Origine First then the Author here gives us an Eloge on Mountains expressing himself thus The greatest objects of Nature are methinks the most pleasing to behold and next to the great Concave of the Heav'ns and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit there is nothing that I look upon with more pleasure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth There is something august and stately in the air of these things that inspires the Mind with great Thoughts and Passions We do naturally upon such occasions think of God and his Greatness and whatsoever has but the shadow and appearance of Infinite as all things have that are too big for our Comprehension they fill and overbear the Mind with their excess and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration But at last he concludes that these Mountains so specious as they seem are nought but great Ruins and then expatiates much in setting forth their Greatness irregular Form and Situation and lastly assigns their Causes and Origine Now as to the Causes and Origine of Mountains and the accidents belonging to them since I have already shewn that the Account which the Author has rendred of them upon the breaking of the Earth at the Deluge is erroneous I shall not here say more to them especially having intimated already in the fifth Chapter how I conceive Mountains a Sea c. may be accounted for more rationally another way but shall offer some things concerning the necessity and use of Mountains from the beginning of the World as I have already shewn the necessity of a Sea When a man considers the fair Encomium the Author has made on Mountains tho at last concluding them to be but a Ruin and excluding them his Antediluvian Earth he would be apt to say it 's pity that Earth suppos'd far to exceed the present should be without such noble Ruins and ev'n Paradise it self and indeed as the Ancients according to what I have intimated before scarce ever describ'd a Paradise without mentioning a Sea so they seldom did it without naming Mountains I know not how all Mankind may stand affected but I know a great part will agree with me that a level Country can never be so pleasant as a Country diversified in Site and Ornament with Mountains Valleys Chases Plains Woods cataractical Falls and Serpentine Courses of Rivers with a Prospect of the Sea c. What is a dull Level to this Where the sight is terminated at the next Hedge and if you raise Towers to overlook it it can never equal or come near the Charming variety of the other Nor does the Authors Instance in his Answer to Mr. Warren c. 7. seem to me to clear the Point where he says we are pleas'd with the looking upon the Ruins of a Roman Amphitheater or a Triumphal Arch tho time has defac'd its beauty For the question will still lie whether a Roman Amphitheater or Triumphal Arch in its Glory were not more beautiful and pleasing to behold than the Ruins of them and I shall still be of Opinion that the present Earth on the accounts before exprest has a more delightful and Charming prospect than its Antediluvian state as by the Author represented could have afforded but let us consider the use of Mountains We find the Ancients call'd the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Mother Earth for as Plato says the Earth does not imitate a Woman but a Woman the Earth and they compar'd the Mountains on the Earth to the breasts of a Woman and indeed if the thing be duly consider'd we shall find that the Mountains are no less ornamental and of necessary use to the Earth for affording continual streams of fresh Waters to suckle all her Productions than the protuberant Breasts of a Woman are both for beautifying her Person and yielding sweet streams of Milk for the nourishment of her Children Hence also they call'd Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multimamma and ador'd it by that name under the figure of an Hermaphrodite this Hermaphroditical Figure of Nature was to denote its double Power because the Ancients and among others of them Orpheus Trismegistus and Soranus said Nature was both male and female and hence with the Greeks
of the Earth be consider'd according to Gravity or Magnetism Aristotle who consider'd it according to the former says that all the Particles of the Earth have a natural Gravity which carries them towards the midst or Center whence a spherical Figure of it must be caus'd as he explains at large and concludes that the Figure of the Earth must therefore be Spherical or naturally Spherical and that every thing must be said to be such as it uses to be or is by Nature and not what it may be by force or preternaturally and in a violent state The same may be said of the Earth's Figure if it be consider'd according to Magnetism the Experiment of the Terrella according to the various Inclinations of the Needle to it shewing the Earth to be Spherical And whereas the Author says that Circumnavigation the appearing and Occultation of Mountains and Towers to Saylors as also the Stars and the like prove indeed the Earth not to be plain but convex but does not plainly prove what that Convexity is whether Spherical or Oval We find that Clavius was of a contrary Opinion he thinking to have well prov'd the Spherical Figure of the Earth if measur'd either from East to West or from North to South by shewing that if a Man keeping the same Meridian passes from North to South there is that proportion still observ'd in the decrease of the elevation of the Pole which can only agree to a spherical Figure and so if any Man travels from East to West betwixt two Parallels he may still observe that to a City fifteen degrees more Easterly than another the Sun always rises and sets an hour sooner or later than to the other which anticipation of the rising and setting of the Sun could not keep the said proportion unless we give the Earth a spherical Figure As to the third Difficulty that the Author finds and the Explanation he endeavours to give of it viz. What Issue the Rivers would have when they were come to the parts near the Torrid Zone to which he says That then they would be divided into many Branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drank up by the dry sandy Earth This seems not to me fairly to account for the Rivers Issue It 's true we have now accounts of some Rivers absorpt in the Sands but the Waters so absorpt or which any where pass into the Earth have their Issue again at some other place either passing into the Sea or emerging again on the Land but what became of those Antediluvian Waters which must have been in vast quantities absorpt in the Sands Did the Circumgyration of the Earth carry them back again under ground upon an Ascent toward the Poles Or did they sink into the Abysse This must have been full before for many Ages till the Sun had cloven the Earth and drawn out great quantities of the Abysse Waters and the other way of their Issue seems not to me conceivable But I shall insist no farther on this matter The Author in the last place urges that the Rainbow set in the Clouds after the Deluge makes out that the Antediluvian Heav'ns were of a different Constitution from ours the Rainbow having not been seen in the Clouds before Now concerning the Rainbow mention'd Gen. 9. many have said many things but the most natural Interpretation of it seems to me to be thus We find in the foregoing Chapter when Noah and his Family by Gods Command were come forth of the Ark and that Noah had rais'd an Altar and sacrific'd to God God accepting his Sacrifice assur'd him that he would no more destroy every living Soul as he had done but that Seed-time and Harvest Cold and Heat Summer and Winter Night and Day should not cease or should continue They having been interrupted for a years time before And in the 9th Chapter after having bless'd Noah and his Sons he made a Covenant with them against any future Deluge and to comfort them gave them the Rainbow as a present sign of the Air 's setling in its wonted way the Seasons which he had mention'd before to Noah being to succeed in Course And the Rainbow thus appearing after the Deluge carried somewhat new in it as the Author says a Sign ought to have done because it had not been seen for a year before and in its nature appearing after Rains it betokens fair Weather as appearing after fair Weather it betokens Rains Whereas the Author says he does not look upon the Rainbow as a voluntary Sign and by divine Institution but that it signified naturally and by Connection with the effect importing that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water This seems to me without any ground I agree with him so far that the Rainbow signified naturally and by Connection with the effect because appearing after Rains it betokens a remission of the moisture and consequently fair Weather and this with Gods Promise to Noah and his seeing the Waters retir'd from the Earth I think was sufficient for Noahs satisfaction he having had experience that God was Master of his Word before when he had reveal'd to him that he would bring a Deluge on the Earth But to say that the appearance of the Rainbow imported the state of Nature to be so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water this will not be allow'd for if the Deluge was miraculously caus'd as I conceive it to have been what natural sign could foreshew its coming or no return of it Wherefore in this respect I look upon it to be only a voluntary Sign and by divine Institution And we know some have been so far from thinking the Rainbow to denote a change of Air towards a Conflagration that they plainly say it denotes a Dominion of moisture in the Air and that on this account it will not appear forty years before the Conflagration happens Neither do I believe that Noah or perhaps any Man since him besides the Author could find by any natural signality in the Rainbow that a Deluge should ne'r return Indeed as the Author says if Noah had never seen a Rainbow before on its first appearance it could not but have made a lively Impression upon him for his assurance for its probable it would have rais'd a stupor in him and he would have lookt upon it as a Miracle wrought by God for his satisfaction whereas the Rules of Providence are otherwise God never giving a miraculous Sign but of a miraculous Effect which the preservation of the Earth from a second Deluge was not to be but only the Earth left to itself with those second Causes that attend it for its own preservation And those instances of Signs which the Author has quoted from the Scriptures are miraculous Signs of
Spring-Tides the whole will be overflown He farther tells us that as Fires and Waters bear sway o'er earthly things their rise and ruine being from and by them it was the Opinion of Berosus that Deluges and Conflagrations will happen thro the Courses of the Planets and that a Conflagration shall happen when all the Planets which now keep different courses shall meet in Cancer being so plac'd that it shall pass in a direct line through them all and that a Deluge shall happen when the said Planets shall so meet in Capricorn the one making the Summer Solstice and the other the Winter Signs of great Power being the Points for the Changes of the Year And Seneca receives these Causes also one Cause being too little for so great a Ruin He adds whether the World be an Animal or a Body Nature governing it as Trees and standing Corn From its beginning there was included in it whatsoever it ought to act and to undergo to its end as in the Seed is comprehended the whole state of the future Man so that the Child yet unborn has the Law of a Beard and grey Hairs the Lineaments of the whole Body and of the succeding Age being there in little and conceal'd So he says the Origine of the World contain'd as well the Sun and Moon and Courses of the Planets and the Rise of Animals as those things with which earthly things are chang'd In these was an Inundation which happens by the Law of the World no otherwise than Summer and Winter And he says all things will help Nature for the performance of her Constitutions but the Earth it self will afford it the greatest cause to drown it which will be resolv'd into Moisture and flow by a continued consumption the tainted parts as in Bodies ulcerated by degrees bringing the rest to a general Colliquation Here we plainly see what the grounds of the Stoicks and others were for admitting Deluges and Conflagrations They having observed that particular Bodies on the Earth had a beginning and decay and were again renewed by their Seeds thence by Analogy concluded that the same Order must pass as to the whole World and again having consider'd that Fires and Waters bore the sway o'er earthly things and that the one prevail'd in the Summer the other in the Winter they thence imagin'd that besides ordinary Summers and Winters whereby the ordinary Changes are wrought on the Earth there would happen some great periodical Revolutions in the Heavens causing so great a Predominancy of Fires and Waters here below that they would cause general Changes over the whole face of the Earth at once Bede speaking of these Changes says it was the opinion of all the Philosophers that earthly things received their Periods sometimes by a Deluge and sometimes by a Conflagration because the Waters being plac'd under the Fountain of Heat it happens that the Moisture encreases by degrees and overpowers the Heat till being detain'd by no bounds it diffuses it self over the Earth and drowns it which Moisture at length being dry'd by the Heat of the Sun and Drought of the Earth the Heat encreases in its turn and over-powers the Moisture till being diffus'd over the Earth it burns it He adds there are some that say these things happen through the general Elevation and Depression of the Planets for if all the Planets are elevated together being remov'd from the Earth more than they ought they consume less of the Moisture whence the Moisture encreasing it diffuses it self o'er the Earth and causes a Deluge If but one two or three of them are elevated without the others the Moisture thereby does not abound for what increases by their remoteness is dry'd by the nearness of the others but if all are depress'd together they burn the Earth and cause a Conflagration doing too much by their nearness as by their remoteness they did too little Many others who write of these Mundane Changes word themselves much after the same manner Whence we find the Antients did not barely rely on Tradition for these Changes but had such grounds as they conceiv'd rational for admitting them Now if it shall be said that the Causes they have assign'd are not competent for such Changes possibly it may be because they sought for Causes which were not in Nature to be found For those Antients either supposing the Deluge of the antient Ogyges to have been general or having heard that some other Deluge had been affirmed so to have been and finding by marine Bodies dug in Mountains that the Waters of the Sea had been there they attempted to assign Causes for an universal Change at one effort whereas those Causes upon examination were found either to have been assign'd gratis without any solid ground or to answer only partial Changes Hence Aristotle and the soundest Reasoners well seeing the slight Presumptions on which this Opinion was grounded derided the Stoicks Epicureans and others who maintain'd it For first Aristotle knew they had no sound Records for making out that any such Change had happen'd in Nature And secondly he having well weighed the Rotation of the Elements and what past in particular Bodies found that what flow'd from the later receded from them which must cause a decay but whatever flowing there were in the Elements it still return'd into them so that nothing was lost or decay'd as to the whole nor so much to any chief part as to cause a total Dissolution And since no Man that I know of has hitherto assign'd a Cause able to work a general Change in the Earth at once I should be inclin'd according to natural Principles to follow his Opinion a general Change being to be ascribed to Miracle for ought I know till some Prophet shall come to help us out As for what has been said by the Sibylls and antient Magi among the Gentiles concerning these Changes I speak not of what has been prophetically deliver'd of them in Sacred Writ which I judg refers to a miraculous hand we know they were Persons chiefly concern'd in the Politick Government of their times and being greatly skill'd in Adept Philosophy as some of our Prophets also transcendently were they knew how to adapt the great Phaenomena of the Earth to the Microcosm and moral World and there is a Mystery in what they intimate as to these Changes which I think not fit here to explain but may note that those who are seen in the Promethean Arcanum Astrologicum and have heard the seven-Reed Pipe of Pan know on what grounds the above-mention'd Astrological Causes for Deluges and Conflagrations were originally introduc'd and whither they tend The antient Druids of our Nation who were the most famous for Adept Philosophy of any Men of these parts of the World nay and as Pliny says the Persian Magi may seem to have had their rise from them and who govern'd all here in their Sacrifices which they thought most acceptable to their Gods were wont to make
Form and State compared with ours There being little new in this Chapter I have the less to consider in it neither will it concern me here to mind whether others have duly explain'd the Form of the Earth or not I shall therefore only take notice of one Passage here because it relates to what I have elsewhere urg'd where the Author argues against some Divines who say that God Almighty made the Mountains and Sea-Channel immediately when he made the World which Point he states as follows Let us consider the Earth in that transient in complete Form which it had when the Abysse encompass'd the whole Body of it We both agree that the Earth was once in this state and they say it came immediately out of this State into its present Form there being made by a supernatural Power a great Channel or Ditch in one part of it which drew off the Waters from the rest and the Soil which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this Ditch made the Mountains Against this he urges as follows If the Mountains were taken out of the Channel of the Sea then they are equal to it and would fill it up if they were thrown in again But these Proportions upon examination will not agree for tho the Mountains of the Earth are very great yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean the Ocean extends to half the surface of the Earth and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Mountains and the middle depth to the middle sort of Mountains the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable Computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land and consequently neither they nor the Sea-channel could have been produc'd in this manner because of their great disproportion to one another And the same thing appears if we compare the Mountains with the Abysse which cover'd the Earth before this Channel was made for this Channel being made great enough to contain all the Abysse the Mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the Abysse but the aggregate of the Mountains will not answer this by many degrees for suppose the Abysse was but half as deep as the Ocean to make this Calculus Answer all the dry Land ought to be cover'd with Mountains and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep or doubly high to the depth of the Abysse because they are but upon one half of the Globe Now whatever may be said of that Opinion of the Divines which I do not take upon me here to maintain the Reasoning which the Author here urges against them is no way conclusive but contrary to his own Assertions and suppositions If he will be just to the Divines in allowing the whole Acclivity of the Earth with the Mountains to have been then taken out of the Sea Channel and plac'd where they are For then I say he has suppos'd that the Sea covers half the Globe of the Earth and allows it as I conceive two Miles deep in the deepest part as it is esteem'd in the computation of the most Judicious and that there is a general declivity from all Shoars to the bottom of the Sea in all its parts tho that declivity be not every where even but sometimes interrupted and the depth of the bottom of it be various So again He has suppos'd in the second Chapter that the whole Earth being as it were a Mountain above the Sea there is a general Acclivity in it from the Sea-shores to its Mediterranean Mountains and that this general Acclivity makes a Mile in height to the foot of the said Mountains and that some of those Mountains are raised a Mile or more from the foot of them to their Summit which makes an height proportional to the Deepest parts of the Sea Hence I say according to the Authors own suppositions if all the rise of the Earth above the level of the Sea taking both the general acclivity of it with the Mountains were par'd off and turn'd upside down into the Sea-Channel they must of necessity fill it the highest Mountains answering to the deepest parts of the Sea and the general acclivity of the Earth with the other Mountains to the general declivity and other deeper parts of it Or it may be represented briefly thus The Author supposes the Sea to cover half the Globe and that taking one part with another of it it makes a quarter of a Mile depth throughout Now I believe the Author and all Men will agree that if all the Mountains taken with the general acclivity of the Earth were cast into a level they would make an Area over the other half part of the Globe a quarter of a Mile in height above the level of the Sea and consequently according to his own Hypothesis it must be able to fill the Channel of the Sea if empty For a Conclusion to this Book the Author considers the other Planets which he conceives to be of the same Fabrick and to have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth Particularly as to Venus he says 't is a remarkable passage that St. Austin has preserv'd out of Varro which is as follows That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happen'd to the Planet Venus and that she chang'd her colour form figure and magnitude This the Author says is a great Presumption that she suffer'd her Dissolution about the same time that our Earth did Now First the Author seems not to have quoted Austin's Passage right saying that the Planet Venus chang'd her colour form figure and magnitude Austin's words being ut mutaret colorem magnitudinem figuram cursum Secondly This Passage I conceive has been answer'd aptly enough long since by Ralegh tho no great Philosopher where he says It is not improbable that the Flood of Ogyges being so great as Histories have reported it was accompany'd with much alteration of the Air sensibly discover'd in those parts and some unusual face of the Skies Varro in his Book de gente Populi Romani as cited by St. Austin reports out of Castor that so great a Miracle happen'd in the Star of Venus as never was seen before nor in after times for the Colour the Greatness the Figure and the Course of it were chang'd This fell out as Adrastus Cyzicenus and Dion Neapolites famous Mathematicians affirm'd in the time of Ogyges Now Concerning the Course of that or any other Planet I do not remember that I have any where read of so good Astrologers flourishing among the Greeks or elsewhere in those days as were likely to make any Calculation of the Revolutions of the Planets so exact that it should need no Reformation Of the Colour and Magnitude I see no reason why the difference found in the Star of Venus should
to oppose First the Author 's main Reason for the oval Figure of the Earth seems not to me to hold good where he says in his Latin Copy since the Bulk of Waters in the first Formation of the Earth when it was yet an aqueous Globe was much more agitated under the Aequator than the Water towards the Poles where it made less Circles those Parts so greatly agitated endeavouring to recede from the Centre of their Motion since they could not wholly spring up and fly away by reason of the Air every where pressing on them nor much flow back without the Resistance of the said Air they could not otherwise disingage themselves than by flowing off to the sides and so making the aqueous Globe somewhat oval This I say is contrary to Experiment for the more rapid any Course of Waters is the more it draws all neighbouring Waters to joyn with them in their Course and forces them not to recede from them into calmer Parts where the rapidness of their Course is check'd by a slower Motion and if this should be done to some distance can it be imagin'd but their native Gravity when rais'd considerably above their level long ere they reacht the Polar Parts would make them fall back again to the lower Aequinoctial Current And the native Nitency of the Waters in both Hemispheres on each side the Torrid Zone would much more strongly repel any Waters there rais'd above their level than the Rapidness of the Aequinoctial Current could force them off Again since the Earth consider'd as a Spherical Body is allow'd to be above 7000 Miles Diameter and since to enlarge a Circle into a moderate oval Figure its Area must be made a quarter as big again at least one way of its Diameter as it was before as Mr. Warren has demonstrated it follows that the Antediluvian Earth at each Pole must have been near 900 Miles extent in the suppos'd oval State more than if it had been exactly round And since this Earth inclos'd an Orb of Waters within it I desire to know how many Miles Depth of the 900 Miles the Author allows to his Orb of Waters he must allow it Miles enough to make an oval Orb for so his Water was suppos'd to be before the Orb of Earth was form'd upon it and consequentially to what is said he cannot allow his Orb of Waters to be less than 450 Miles deep at each Pole to make any thing of an oval Now to say that any Detrusion of Waters toward the Poles by the resistence of of the superambient Air could form a Mountain of Waters at each of the said Poles about 450 Miles in Height above their Spherical Convexity seems to me a strange and unaccountable Paradox in Hydrography especially the Orb under the Abysse being suppos'd Spherical as the Author has represented it in all his Schemes so that there was nothing to bear on the Detrusion of the Waters It 's true as the Author says in his Answer to Mr. Warren we see the Waters flowing towards and upon the Shoars by the Pressure of the Air under the Moon tho it be an Ascent both upon the Land and into the Rivers but I answer this flowing is only to the Height of some few Fathoms and besides it 's maintain'd by a bulk of Waters then swoln in the Sea near as high as any protruded on the Land and carrying a Pondus able to support them But what Force shall be able to support a Body of Waters in a violent State carried 450 Miles in height above their natural tendency as they all are when past the spherical Convexity For the Author owns the Demonstration of Archimedes concerning the spherical Figure of Water to be true and says that a fluid Body be it Water or any other Liquor always casts it self into a smooth and spherical Surface and if any parts by chance or by some agitation become higher than the rest they do not continue so long but glide down every way into the lower places till they all come to make a Surface of the same height and of the same distance every where from the Center By what agitation or resistence then of the superambient Air can Waters be driven on and held together for 450 Miles ascent in the open Air so as not to diverge and fall off by their natural tendency Besides if according to what I have said before the Author allows his Abyss Orb to be 450 Miles deep at the Poles he must allow it of a depth proportional to its oval Figure in its other parts and so for his Orb of Earth and how this can stand with the proportion he seems to assign to his Orbs according to what I have set forth l. 1. c. 6. and how a Deluge according to these proportions could be caus'd and the Waters go off so as to make an habitable World may require his consideration Again since the Sun according to the Authors Hypothesis moving always in the Aequinox before the Flood would constantly have held as remote if not more from the suppos'd rainy Region than it is now from us in the depth of Winter and since we find the Mountains now which are of any considerable height even in the temperate Zones are so cold that they are generally cover'd with Snows notwithstanding the Sun shines more on them than on the Countries lying beneath them and that even in the Summer when the Sun is nearest to them and the days are much longer than the nights it follows that the two Polar Mountains in all respects must always have had Colds in the greatest excess both in regard of their great distance from the Sun and of their being Mountains and of their having little or no Day nay if it were constant Day at the Poles themselves and there were as much Day as Night in the suppos'd rainy Regions as the Author can pretend to no more there this could not protect them against continual Frosts and Snows as appears by what I have said of the Mountains in the temperate Zones I may add that as Mr. Warren has observ'd several Navigators attempting to find out a nearer Course to China have been frozen to death tho they sail'd not so far North as the suppos'd rainy Regions in the oval Earth and chose the most seasonable time for their Enterprize viz. When the Sun was on this side the Equator and the days then in those Regions were much longer than the Nights if they had any Night at all Besides what experience all other Saylers have had of the great Colds and continued Frosts and Snows in those Countries notwithstanding the Vapours of the Sea or any nearness of the Sun and length of days which might help to remit them Lastly Whereas the Author conceivs the present Earth to be also of an oval Figure we know the general Sense of Men according to all experience and observation to be contrary and that whether the Constitution
of Natural of Strife Discord and Division on the one hand and Love and Friendship on the other and that after a long Contest Love got the better of Discord and united the disagreeing Principles Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogy or Pedigree Chaos was the Common Parent of all and from Chaos sprung first Night and Tartarus or Oceanus of Night were born Aether and the Earth the Earth conceiv'd by the Influences of Aether and brought forth Man and all Animals This he says seems a Poetical Fiction rather than Philosophy yet compar'd with his Theory of the Chaos will appear a pretty regular account how in the formation of the World the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions rising from one another as he has set forth in his first Book how the Chaos from an uniform Mass wrought in it self successively into several Regions or Elements The grossest parts sank to the Center on this lay the mass of Waters and over the Waters was a dark impure caliginous Air which the Ancients call'd Night as they call'd the mass of Waters Oceanus or Tartarus which two terms he finds with them often of the like force Now this Turbid air he says purifying itself by degrees as the more subtle parts flew upwards and compos'd th' Aether so the Earthy parts dropt down on the surface of the Water and that Mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its Surface these two incorporate there and compos'd this habitable Earth so being the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus and the Mother of all other things This Doctrine of the Chaos he says the Ancients call'd the Genealogy of the Gods and thus from Eris and Eros Love and Discord the World arose for in the first Commotion of the Chaos after an intestine struggle of all the parts the Elements separated from one another into so many different Bodies or Masses and in this state and posture things continued a good while which the Ancients after their Poetical or Moral way call'd the Reign of Eris or Contention Hatred Flight and Disaffection till Love and good Nature conquer'd Venus rose out of the Sea c. I shall here adjoyn also what the Author says of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg because it particularly relates to the rising of the World from the Chaos He says then that the Ancients had a Doctrine partly Symbolical concerning the Mundane Egg or their comparing the World to an Egg and especially in th' Original Composition of it Now he tells us 't is certain that by the World in that Similitude they did not mean the great Universe for that has neither Figure nor any determinate form of Composition and it would be a great vanity and rashness to compare this to an Egg but this Comparison is to be understood of the sublunary World or of the Earth and for a general Key to Antiquity upon this Argument he lays down this as a Maxim or Canon that what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World or concerning th' Original of it from a Chaos or about the Periods or dissolution of it is never to be understood of the great Universe but of our Earth and of this sublunary and Terrestrial World He intimated somewhat to this purpose in his first Book saying that when we speak of a rising World and the Contemplation of it we do not mean this of the Great Universe for who can describe the Original of that but we speak of the sublunary World this Earth and its dependancies which rose out of a Chaos about 6000 Years ago Now he says he has shewn that the Figure of the Earth when finisht was Oval and th' inner form of it was a frame of four Regions encompassing one another where that of the Fire lay like the yolk and a shell of Earth inclos'd them all and thus the Riddle of the Mundane Egg is Expounded I think fit for Clearness-sake to consider this part of the Chapter before I proceed to the rest First then as to Strife Discord or Division on one hand in the Chaos and Love and Friendship on the other it 's known on what account these are brought in for some of the ancient Philosophers made two eternal and infinite Principles on this ground that one natural thing might be derived from many Causes and the ancient Philosophers generally affirm the Principles of Nature to be contrary and that one thing cannot be contrary to itself And whereas the Author calls these Moral Principles it 's known to the Mystae that there is a Microcosmical as well as a Macrocosmical Chaos and that the Ancients often under one Tenour of Discourse carried on both Moral and Natural Doctrines and knew well how to open or unlock the Microcosmical Chaos and to form thence a Moral World The Doctrine of Moses and the Prophets are full of this Mystery and a consummation of them was in the Person of our Saviour Christ the Doctrine also of the Gentils both Philosophers and Poets who were the ancient Divines contain the same Mysteries but their proceedings in several respects were in a very corrupt way and are now expell'd the World upon the establishment of a greater Light Those who are any way initiated in these Mysteries know how far they may be free to express themselves in them concerning which I have nothing more to offer than to pray that Love in the Moral World as well as in the Natural may still overpower the other perverse and refractory Principle and beseech God in his mercy to enlighten every Man in his appointed time As to the Chaos out of which the World rose though the Author thinks he has given a fair Explanation of it according to the sence of the Ancients and of the Changes it underwent when it form'd a World and all Creatures rose from it yet I think I have shewn before the inconsistency of this Explanation beside what else may be said against it And admitting th'application he has made of his Doctrine as to what Changes he supposes to have past in the Chaos when the World was form'd might quadrate in some tolerable way with what seems to be deliver'd by the Ancients concerning it yet since we are here gotten into fabulous Philosophy and since those terms of the Ancients Night Tartarus Oceamus Aether c. have various significations according as they are variously expounded by several Authors all that any Man can urge in the Case can amount to no more than his Say-so unless the determinate sense of those words as us'd by the Ancients were better ascertain'd to us than perhaps any Man has yet done concerning which I should have expected somewhat in a Book if extant which the learned Joan. Picus in his Oration and other parts of his Works says he had written Entituled Theologia Poetica our Common Mythologists not reaching it mean while to