Adamants or Course as Pebbles and Free-Stone Now by experience we find it that these concretions are so strangely durable that hardly any time is able to dissipate and dissolve them for the Marbles in the Great Pyramid in Egypt which lie inwards and are not exposed to the washings of the Rains and the frettings of the nitrous Air are not in the least decayed for all they have stood there so many thousand years Now if Stones do continually increase and there be no sensible Decay of them upon supposition that the World has continued from Eternity the whole World would be turn'd by this time into one Massy Rock by this Eternal Petrification for many Ages ago the Earth would have been incultivable at least Men must have made use of Crows and Mattocks instead of Ploughs And we may further observe the inclination of the Earth to Petrification in places uninhabited or dispeopled as particularly in Palestine which formerly was a place luxuriantly fruitful but since by the Ravage of the Romans and the Turks the Inhabitants are so much thinned the Ground is grown stony and Barren for want of Cultivation I say for want of Cultivation for Tillage does macerate and break the Stony Earth again into a fine and kind soil which is fit for vegetation and therefore in these Cultivated parts of the World we are not so sensible of the increasing Petrification as we are in the uncultivated ones Besides I am apt to fansie that the subsidency of the Sea in most parts of the World is in some measure owing to the employing a great part of its saline Particles in the production of Stones which are partly concreted out of them for these thin salts which are from thence drawn up with the Mists and Rains are the principles of Petrification Now this Argument may be further improved if we consider the Duration of Osseous and Testaceous substances far exceeding the time of their Production The Bones of Animals are produced in a little time and are not dissolved in a very great one The shells of Oisters Mussels c. are concreted in one Year and yet last many thousands as appears by those Beds of shells we find in the Tops of Hills which have lain there at least ever since the Deluge So that to any Inquisitive Man it is plain that Nature is every day more and more over-taking her self and as it were treading upon her own heels For if the World had continued an Infinity of time we should have been all over-run with these Osseous and Conchous substances and no matter left among us proper for Vegetation And indeed we cannot but observe a kind of a Parsimony in Nature as if she was afraid of this by the speedy corruption and resolution of most Animals and Vegetables by a natural principle which we generally call Fermentation For there is an active spirituous Matter lodged in the composition of Plants Flowers Flesh c. which after the vital Principle is gone does by an agil internal motion shatter the compages in pieces that Nature may make use of the parts again for another Work just as Printers are used to knock their Letters asunder when the Sheet is wrought off Now unless Nature was afraid of wanting a sufficient stock of this fine matter and being reduced to the saxeous and unpliable which she sees every day to grow upon her she cannot be supposed to make such precipitate hast in the dissolution of her former Productions especially when Animals and Vegetables are so inconsiderable a part of the bulk of the Earth I do not say that this encrease of saxeous matter is any great inconvenience to the Earth already or ever shall be if it continues but some few thousand years more or that this is any imperfection in this great Work of the Deity for it is well enough contrived for a World of some thousand years Duration but not for an Eternal one the World will keep very well in repair for so short a time and therefore God Almighty does not see sufficient reasons to amend these small decays just as we when we have but a short time in a House or Estate we take little care to repair it if it be like to last well enough out our time Phil. Very Philosophick Divinity what is your next Argument Cred. Arg. II. From the sinking of Hills My next Argument I shall draw from the subsidency of Hills and the daily landing up the Sea which are things inconsistent with the Eternity of the World For if the World has been from all Eternity there could no where have been found such a thing as a Hill for millions of Ages ago the highest Hills would have been all washed down into the Sea and the Earth would have been reduced to an absolute Level so that the Waters would have totally overflowed it and rendered it unhabitable That the Hills are continually a sinking being washed down by the Rains and oftentimes vast Rocky parts of them tumbled into the Vales by Storms is undeniable to those that have seen the many great Stones which lie at the Bottoms of Hills in Wales and Switzerland to those that have observed some parts of the Walls of old Rome to lie thirty or forty foot under ground and other higher parts of the City as the Capitol to have their foundations wholly extant above ground and at the bottom of the same Mountain the Triumphal Arch of Septimius almost wholly overwhelmed in the Earth Again it is plain by observation that the Tops of many Towers of Churches have been seen of late from some places which they have formerly been hid from by the interposition of an high Hill which since it has been partly washed down by the Rains has discovered the Steeple which for some Ages before lay hid nay we can hardly see any old building of but an hundred Years standing that is built in low ground but we may observe the foundations to lie much deeper than they were at first laid which can be nothing but the Earth washed from the Hills and lodged there So that we must needs grant that the World is so far from having continued an Eternity of time or being like to continue so that it is every day more and more hastening to its ruin by an inundation if it had been Eternal long ago the Hills would have been all sunk into the Valleys the subsiding Earth would have choaked up the very Channels of the Seas so that the whole World would have been one circumfused Ocean or at least a noisom uninhabitable Marsh To say this would be millions of Ages coming to pass is nothing for the longest time bears no proportion to Eternity if a Dish of Water only once in a thousand years were thrown upon Mount Caucasus so as to come down just dirty in an Eternity of time it would have fetched done all that Prodigious Mountain and laid it as plain as a Bowling-Green Now this one Argument is
of them for tho' we do not know it God may But perhaps there may be another sense of the words than what is usually apprehended And God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament v. 7. Now by the Firmament is generally and I think very well understood the Atmosphere of the Earth or the Regions of the Air. All the difficulty is to find out what these Coelestial Water or Waters above the Air be Now there is no need to seek out Pools in the Empyreum if we can find Waters nigher home Then tell me Sir why may not the Waters which belong to each Planet be these Waters above the Firmament That the Moon has Waters analogous to our Seas is demonstrable from the diverse Reflexion of Light from her different parts nay from the very shape of Seas and Islands we observe in her and that the other Planets have the same is highly probable from their similitude to one another Now I suppose that before the Work of the second Day all this Planetary Water lay undistinguishably dispersed throughout the Expansum and together with the Aether made up that Pellucid Globe which was left by the secession of the opake and terreous parts that subsided to the seven respective Centres and formed the Bodies of the Planets The work therefore of the second Day was to make a Division of these Waters to distribute them in proper proportions to the several Planets and in obedience to God's command all the Aqueous parts of the Great Pellucid subsided towards the Centres of the Planets and were circumfused about their Globes Thus the Expansum was cleared off a second time by the subsidency of the Aqueous and uninflammable parts and left the Pellucid to consist of a still finer and purer substance as you see described in the Figure III. Now this subsidency of the Aqueous parts to the different Centres Moses calls dividing the Waters under the Firmament from the Waters which are above the Firmament The Waters under the Firmament are the Waters of the Earth the Waters above the Firmament are those of the Moon and other Planets which since the second days work are distinguished but lay confusedly dispersed in the Expansum before Phil. I protest Sir I am very well pleased with this Explication of yours this has engaged me to have a better Opinion of the Mosaick Hypothesis than ever I had in my Life for it now seems to have something of Reason and Philosophy in it But still there seem to be some Difficulties in this third days Work For it is not easy to conceive how all the Channels of the Seas should be hollowed out in one days time or what should be done with the Earth which was digged out of those hollows O. R. P. It should seem to require more than one days time for the Waters which covered the most inland Countries to run off from thence into those Oceanal Channels Pray Sir how do you get over these Difficulties Cred. This is Sir The Seas easily formed in one Day in Scirpo nodum quaerere to raise doubts where there is not the least appearance of any For what a mighty difficulty is it for God Almighty to hollow out the Channels of the Seas in one Day If you and I were to get Workmen to do it in such a time it would be a very difficult Enterprize But for God-Almighty to do that in four and twenty Hours time by an Almighty Power which he might if he had pleased have done in an instant is such a wonder as no wise man should be startled at You see here this little bit of Earth which I take out of this border I can in a minutes time mould it into what form I will I can make it round or oval convex or hollow or how I please and may not we very well suppose that God-Almighty might in as little time have formed Earth into what Figure he pleased The Earth was then very flexible its parts being not then setled into its present hardness and therefore might easily be moulded into any Figure whatsoever But to wonder how God could bring the Waters which covered the Inland Countries in one days time into the Channel of the Sea is to me very strange For why should God in his Creation be tied to the dull sluggish motion of his Creatures since Motion is demonstrated to be infinitely fast or slow as God pleases And why should we oblige him in his works to any determinate degree of it We see the Waters move just such a pace now and therefore God must necessarily forsooth wait their motions and protract the time of his Creation because of that This I am sure is something of the Philosophy of a Country-man as you call it This is a true Plebeian Hypothesis and something of Kin to that of Horace Rusticus expectat dum labitur amnis at ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum Phil. Pray Sir have a care of insulting for you are not got so clear off from this days Work yet I am afraid you will have a deadly rub in your way when I shall ask you if it be not a little inconsistent in the Mosaick Philosophy to make the Trees and Herbs before the Sun Upon this Hypothesis we may very well expect to find Orange Trees and Melons in Greenland when all manner of Plants could grow where there never had been any Sun at all Your Prophet had been a better Botanist if he had but contriv'd to have post-poned his Herbage for one day at least for then the Sun might have brought them out thick and threefold but for this cold dark watry ground to be so prodigiously prolifick is so strangely unnatural that methinks you should be ashamed to think of it Cred. I wonder Sir Trees and Plants might easily grow before the Sun was made you should expect or talk of nature in the Creation for God was then producing nature and not acting according to it He was then forming those Laws and Methods of Nature but he could not be supposed to act by them before he had formed them But nevertheless what unnaturalness I pray was there in creating Plants before the Sun If they had been created some years before it there would have been something in the Objection but all this time was but one poor day Now few Plants are so tender but they will live as long a time as that without either Sun or Water or Earth But these being formed in the Earth the third day cannot be supposed to have died before the fourth when the Sun began to shine upon them But I cannot imagine what need there should be of the Sun for the Creation of Plants Indeed there is very great need of it in the natural production of them to open the Fibres to elevate the Juices to unfold the Coats and Leaves of the Embryon Plant
up of the Chaos Indeed this difficulty has horribly puzled Interpreters The Rabbins who are used to be very fruitful for Invention tell us the Sun was created the first day when the Light is said to be Created but is mentioned by way of repetition in the fourth Day Others will have this Light to be a Lucid Cloud like that which went before the Children of Israel in the Wilderness and moved round the World like the Sun till that was created But our Prophet need not be holp off with such silly shifts as these You know that Darkness has been in all Ages the chief Idea Men have had of a Chaos Hence Nox and Erebus and Tartarus have been the principal part of the Description of it in the Poets and Philosophers Therefore it should seem very agreeable to the Reason of Mankind that the first remove from the Chaos should be a tendency to Light Either all Mankind have been out in their notion of a Chaos or the Mosaick Hypothesis is very well contrived to be so conformable to it But by Light as it was produced the first day must not be understood the darting of Rays from a luminous Body or the trepidation of the Intermediate Corpuscles between that and the Eye which is the actual Light we enjoy now But only the forming and adapting such tenuious parts in such a figure and manner as when such a Luminous Body should be afterwards created they should convey Light to us or raise that agreeable sensation in us Which I will the better explain to you by this Scheme which I desire your favour to look upon It is my Opinion that upon the first formation the whole space of the Magnus Orbis which is all that space which is comprehended within the circle which Saturn describes about the Sun was the Bounds of the Chaos For the other Planets Jupiter Mars c. which are contained within this Circle bear so many similitudes and relations one to the other and to our Earth have the same common Luminary the same Center alike form and gravity with many other Affections which may be demonstrated of them that to any reasonable Man they seem to be the production of one Creation If the Sun was not created till your Creation as Moses says positively it was not we cannot imagine that all the other Planets till that was created went rowling all in the dark round an imaginary point to no purpose We must therefore assign them all one common time of Creation which must be the Mosaical The Chaos therefore must be of equal extent to the Creation that is to take up all the Room within the aforesaid Circle Now it seems most agreeable to Scripture that this Chaolick matter was then first created out of nothing by God Heb. 11.3 compared with 2 Mac. 7.28 That Original Creation therefore is represented in the Figure I. Wherein is comprehended all the Matter in this solar World unformed and indigested without Light or Motion Either the matter was not broke and attenuated into those fine Corpuscles which compose Light or else they lay irretited and entangled with the parts of dissimilar gross Substances mixed with them so as to make the whole Expansion resemble a Great Dark Muddy Globe So that by its opakeness it hindred the Light of the Stars or any Luminous Body from passing through it In this Condition I suppose the Chaos to have stood when the Fiat for Light was given And then when the Divine Spirit or the Wind of God made its Incubation or motion upon the Abyss all the confused stagnating principles of matter began to range into order and form the dull heavy terreous parts which over-clouded the Expansum had their summons to retire to their respective Centres and they presently obeyed the Almighty Orders and part thereof subside to the Center of the Earth some to Jupiter some to Saturn and others to Venus c. till the Globes of those respective Planets were compleated and till the whole Expansum was cleared of these gross and opake parts of matter and of a muddy dark Chaos became a Tenuious Pellucid Globe This was the first Days Work and the Effect of that Divine Effate Let there be Light Vid. Fig. II. Phil. Ay this is Divinity which agrees with my Tooth Do but go on at this rate and I like King Agrippa shall be half a Christian at first dash I wish you could help out Moses at other straits as well as you have done here But what say you to his Waters above the Firmament O. R. Is not this a pretty imaginary Vtopian Ocean There is as much of the Philosophy of a Country-man in this as you would expect to see Poor Prophet he understood nothing of the elevation of vapours from the Sea and the Condensation of them into Rains but very artificially makes a Repository-Pond for them like the New-River Water in the Heavens from whence the diverse Inhabitants of the World may be supplied with Rain according as God pleases Doth this look like Inspiration or indeed like common sense And yet we find a whole day attributed to this Imaginary work Indeed it sometimes makes me laugh to think how the poor Interpreters sweat under this Difficulty Some place these super-celestial Waters only in the Clouds but then they know not how to get them thither for as yet there was no Sun to exhale them Others carry them as high as the Celestial Orbs and make use of them there for refrigerating the heat of the Sun and Moon for fear they should melt the solid Orbs. Thus Theodoret and Procopius two very learned Men. Bede will have them there to keep the heat of the Sun from being too intense and scorching us too much But Cornelius à Lapide has found out a most admirable use for them which is this to make Canals and Waterworks for the Blessed in the Empyrean Heaven Vt aquis hisce Chrystallinis variegatis oculos eorum pascat aquae enim omnis formae decoris coloris ornatus sunt capacissimae ut patet in Iride And for this he quotes the Revelations shall lead them unto living fountains of Water Rev. 7.17 And he shew'd me a pure River of Water of life clear us Chrystal Rev. 22.1 Have not these Men think you pleasant work of it to be making such ropes of sand and to go about to interpret that which can have no tolerable sense put upon it Cred. Your prejudices transport you too far Philologus and Gentlemen of your persuasion are too hasty when they go about to dispute that out of the World which they cannot assign the use of Waters above the Firmament the Waters of the Planets There are a many Plants and Druggs in the World which we do not know the use of and yet it would be a madness to deny their Existence If by Gods word we are assured there are such Celestial Waters it is to no purpose to dispute the use
in the seed But here were no precedent Coats and Leaves to be unfolded for God then formed the Plants immediately out of the common Matter so that the seed was the production of those first Plants and not the Parent of them And God said let the Earth bring forth Grass and Herb yielding seed after his kind and the Tree yielding Fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind Gen. 1.12 But granting a vital warmth should be requisite for the production of these primitive Plants it could not be wanting in the new Earth For the Terreous parts of matter having been agitated in the Chaos by such a rapid motion and having subsided to the Center from such distant parts of the Expansum with so great a Celerity they must needs have contracted an extraordinary heat much more than is requisite for the ordinary Production of Plants nay as we may probably conjecture a Heat nigh to an Inflammation Which perhaps might have been the Cause why the Waters were circumfused first round the Globe when God might as easily have made them at first to settle into their Channels but only to temper the heat of the Agitated Particles Now Sir if one was to measure the method of the Creation by the Vertuoso's Rules methinks we should never have any recourse to the Sun for the Production of Plants for he produces them at a slow tedious rate the Herbs once in a year and the Trees in a much longer time But here was to be a Plantation of the whole World in half a days time and therefore there was need of a more speedy Production Now the new Earth warm yet by its late agitation and impregnated with the moisture of the circumfused Waters would make a kind of a warm Bed to speak in your way for the hasty Production of Plants and might raise up all the Herbage of the World as quick as Jonah's Gourd or a Chymical Sallad So that I should rather think the Gentlemen of your way instead of finding fault with Moses for a Plebeian Philosopher should admire him for an excellent Vertuoso Phil. Now I have something to say to the fourth days work according to Moses his Hypothesis the Deity must bestir himself this day more than ordinary For Sun Moon and Stars are a very considerable job of work for one day especially when the Furniture of our poor Earth took up so many Indeed you have handsomely removed the difficulty of the fixed Stars but then even each of those six Planets which remain would require as long a time for their Formation as this our Earth O R. p. 72. because they are of the same form and as we have reason to believe their Equipage is not very unlike Therefore I cannot be reconciled to your Prophet for crowding the Formation of all these into one day Besides I cannot see how the Relation of this days work agrees with the Explication in your Scheme For if the Planets were formed by the first secretion of matter upon the first day how can they be made the fourth The Expansum before this time seems to be drained of all matter but the Aether and therefore I am at a loss to find what the Sun could be made of This does to me seem something dark and mysterious and requires a little of your Art Credentius to clear it up Cred. This Objection Sir is a little complicated and therefore I shall answer to the parts of it distinctly 1. How the Planets are said to be made the fourth day Whereas you suppose that all the Planets were formed this fourth day and had all those Ornaments they are probably endowed with then bestowed on them this is more than can from Scripture be inferred It is not improbable that God Almighty wrought them all off one as soon as the other and that they grew on to perfection by the same degrees so that the work of each of them was going forwards from the first to the sixth day For all these Planets are so mutually linked to one another and are so much of the same piece that one cannot easily suppose the formation of either of them was distinct from that of another Now though the bulk of these Planets were formed before this day and in all probability some of their Ornamental Parts as perhaps their Seas and their Plants yet they are said to be made the fourth day because they are made the Moon and the Erratick Stars to us They were before only Invisible Globes but by the Light of the Sun which was this day Created they became Conspicuous and Reflected upon the Earth a bright shining Light which they borrowed from thence Thence they are very properly said to be made because though their substance was before yet they were not a Moon or Stars For the formal reason which does constitute a Moon is its reflexion of light in such constant vicissitudes its different Phases c. which is the notion the generality of Mankind frames of the Moon now this it had not till the fourth day and therefore is very properly said to be made For facere in the Latin Tongue has its derivation from novam faciem induere so that a thing is then said to be made when it has another appearance than it had before Neither is the original word gnasah which is used here much different For that signifies not only any new formation but any new use or outward appearance of a thing For sometimes it signifies to sacrifice as the Latin Verb facere so Exod 10.25 that we may make or sacrifice unto the Lord our God So Psal 66.15 I will make to thee an Ox with Goats Which is a much bolder Metaphor than that of Virgil Cum faciam vitulâ pro frugibus Now it is plain here that the sacrifice was made before only the new offering it up or dedicating it to a Religious use is termed making So Numbers the 9.10 it is termed making a Passover unto the Lord where only the Observation of a time already made is termed making So 1 King 12.32 Jeroboam is said to make the high places and Chap. 25.32 Ahab made a Grove Now God-Almighty had made those Hills and Groves before only those wicked Princes dedicated them to those Idolatrous uses The Planets therefore and especially the Moon are very properly said to be made this fourth day because they made their first appearance upon this day to the Earth they had then their first use put upon them of being Luminaries to this World Why Moses relates the distinct formation of the Earth alone 2. Although each of these Planets might take up as much time in its formation as our Earth yet Moses is not to be blamed for not relating distinctly the formation of them It is enough for his purpose to give an account exactly of the sublunary Creation and not to trouble the Peoples Heads with Astronomical niceties His business was to give them an account of their Original
Tree was to make men long lived that were to eat of it and for this reason was called the Tree of Life I do not see how this one Tree had been sufficient for all the Progeny of Adam in case they had not sinned or however it would have been very inconvenient for men to have come from America to Eden for these Vivifical Apples All this looks very surprizing Credentius and is too much like a piece of the old Poetical Divinity Cred. It is true The Relation of the two Trees not ridiculous things look very strange and odd that are unusual which makes us we can hardly forbear laughing at an old Fashion after some time of disuse though we liked it well enough when it was common Now the State of Innocence and the lapsed State of Mankind being so very different we must suppose that there were some things consonant to the first State very disagreeable to our present one and this is but reasonable to imagine Now of a great number of these Moses has reckoned but a few amongst which are these Trees As for the Tree of Life I cannot imagine any thing more agreeable to such a State of Innocence Now a State of Innocence supposes Immortality for Death came by Sin and something was requisite to make men Immortal when their Bodies naturally were not so Indeed God might have done this by his immediate Almighty Power but he generally cooperates with second causes Now what fitter means can we suppose for the continual renovation of Mens Bodies without any manner of decay than the fruit of such a Tree If some Food of an extraordinary quality be requisite why not the Fruit of a Tree as well as the Flesh of an Animal as well as an Herb a Root or any thing else When God had designed that Mens Bodies should never yield to decay or Death methinks it was very reasonable for him to direct them to the eating a certain fruit of a Tree whose juice was of that spirituous nature as to impregnate their blood with an indefectible vigour and to keep them in a constant Youth without pain or disease or imbecillity 'till such time as he should translate them to a better World And this I take to be the use of the Tree of Life It is uncertain whether or no this Tree was but one single one and always to be continued in Eden if there had been no lapse it is most probable many of them would have been transplanted to other parts of the World as the innocent Off-spring had increased but when Mankind had sinned it is probable that God destroyed this species out of the World as being now grown useless and inconsistent with the Curse and Punishment of Man And this the Heathens seem to have some traditional notion of when they speak of the Nectar and Ambrosia which maintained the Immortality of their Gods and Moly which was the great Panacea celebrated by the Heathen Poets As for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil it was I suppose called so not because it had a vertue to confer any such knowledge but because the Devil pretended in his Temptation of the Woman it had it receiving its name from that unfortunate Deception And tho' God calls it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil before the Fall yet that is related by Moses by way of Anticipation as if I should say the Romans Encamped in Essex or Middlesex though neither of those places were then known by that name And as for that other place v. 22. Behold the Man is become as one of us to know good and evil I look upon that to be only a bitter Irony to upbraid Man with his foolish disobedience and disappointment Phil. I suppose you will hardly be able to get off so well with your four Rivers as you have done with your Two Trees I find here that your inspired Author was as bad at Geography as the Turks are at Chronology They have both a good will to their cause and therefore will garnish it out with all the fine things they ever heard of Thus the Turks when they would make King Solomon as brave a Man as they can make Alexander the Great the Master of his Horse and twenty other great Men Lacqueys and Foot-Boys to him And thus Moses when he would describe a curious Garden makes four of the greatest Rivers in the World to be in lieu of Canals in it He does not matter the great distance of place and the different sources of the Rivers but jumbles together all Asia and Africk O.R. p. 35 c. to make a pretty little Garden for Adam to dress Here is Tigris and Euphrates and Nilus and Ganges as the Interpreters explain them which have their Origin in this spot of ground so that it must reach at least from the Fountain of Nile i. e. from the Midland of Africa to India All this is very strange Credentius Cred. To this we answer Philologus Difficulties about the Rivers of Eden removed 1st It is not certain from the Mosaical Relation of what extent this Gan-Eden or Paradise was It might be for ought we know a very considerable part of the habitable Earth which the the Ante-diluvians were kept out of or at least were so for a considerable time Now if Eden was of so large a circumference it might afford an origin to several very distant Rivers So that Adam might only cultivate that part of it which he was first placed in 2ly It is likewise very uncertain what Rivers are meant by these Hebrew names As for the Interpreters they are so various in their Conjectures that it would be tedious to recount them It seems most probable to me that these Rivers are only some branches of the River Euphrates if so be the Channel of the River had a being before the Flood 3ly It can never be exactly known where these Rivers were because of the great alteration made in the World by the Deluge which has mightily altered or it may be obliterated their Course For I believe that at the Flood the mighty confluence of Waters over the Face of the Earth and the breaking open the Deep or Subterraneous Waters turned the Earth into something like its Chaotick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Mud it was at the first Creation so that the Course of Rivers must be altered by the washing away their Banks and the choaking up their Channels And therefore it is in vain to seek for these Ante-diluvian Rivers in those Courses of Waters that trickle over the Earth now And therefore you do very ill to censure the Mosaical Writings because you cannot find those Rivers now a days which he speaks of before the Flood Phil. But by the way Sir if Moses describes these Rivers as they were before the Flood which you suppose to be different from what they are now this will render it a very idle and superfluous Description O.