Generation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is agreeable to what the Scripture says of Noah his being a Preacher of Righteousness to the ungodly Antediluvians upon account of his good Counsel and Piety Now he was saved after this manner He had a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an Ark or Chest into which he came with the Children and Women of his House and then entered Hogs and Horses and Lions and Serpents and all other Animals which live upon the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of them with their Mates And he received them all and they did him no harm for by assistance from Heaven there was a great amity between them So all sailed in this one Chest as long as the Water did predominate But these things are told in the Greek Histories of Deucalion But of those things which happened after one thing worthy of great admiration is told by the Inhabitants of Hierapolis That in their Country there was a great Gap into which all this Water sunk Vpon which Deucalion built Altars and a Temple over the Gap and consecrated it to Juno I my self saw the Gap It is very little at the bottom of the Temple as I told you Whether it was formerly bigger or no and grown narrower by Age I cannot tell but this I can tell that That which I saw was but little Now they make this the sign of the History Twice in a year Water is brought into the Temple and not only the Priests bring it but all Syria and Arabia Nay Men come even from Euphrates to the Sea all carrying Water which they first pour into the Temple Then the Water descends into the Gap and though the Gap be small yet it receives a prodigious quantity of Water And when they do this they tell that Deucalion first instituted this Custom to be a Memorial of the Calamity and his Deliverance from it This is the ancient Tradition which those about the Temple tell From which Relation it is remarkable that it was the Opinion of the People of Syria that there had been an universal Deluge that a certain Man and his Family were saved in an Ark and a Male and Female of every kind of Animals to restore again the drowned Creation and that all this vast quantity of water sunk into an Hiatus of the Earth and made the World habitable again Now I hope that Moses his Relation is not so incredible when it has the joynt Testimony of so many Nations and particularly the Heathen Syrians so exactly corresponding with it Indeed this story in Lucian is told after his way drollingly as if he did not believe it but yet there is no question to be made but that it was the relation of those People though he has a mind to expose it But I need not trouble my self to prove the Being of a Deluge by Tradition of Nations when late observations have given Demonstration of it The Beds of Shells which are often found on the Tops of the highest Mountains and petrified Bones and Teeth of Fishes which are dug up hundreds of Miles from the Sea Trees and Shrubs buried many fathoms under ground are the clearest Evidence in the World that the Waters have some time or other overflow'd the highest parts of the Earth which was the Deluge which we contend for The truth of these matters is not to be contested now by any that have but the least Insight in Experimental Philosophy Nor can it be with any degree of probability said that all these subterraneous Bodies are but only the Mimical and mock Productions of Nature for that these are real Shells the nicest Examination both of the Eye and the Microscope do attest and that they are true Bones may be experimented by burning them and then they will first turn into a Cole and afterwards into a Calx as other Bones do How far Nature may sport her self in the subterraneous World in the impression of the Images of Terrestrial Plants upon Slate and Coles I will not dispute but that it should produce True Bones and Shells which answer in all respects to those of the Genuine Animals is incredible and next to the boldness of an Epicurean Concourse for the Frame of the World 2. That the Deluge was possible I shall therefore only set my self to prove that there is Water enough in or about the Earth to drown it and to rise up to that height which Moses did report it did I confess I do no think that the Waters of the Sea are one quarter enough for such a Deluge and therefore it must be sought for elsewhere That there is a vast quantity of Waters under ground Vid. Dr. Burnet's Theor. p. 1. and an Abyss within the outward Crust of the Earth is I think evident to any who considers that in many places the Sea disgorges it self into the bowels of the Earth and does not pass off by any Out-Current The single Mediterranean Sea is a sufficient Instance of this for considering how many and some vast Rivers run into it and it having no visible outlet what should become of the Waters Nay considering that there are two Currents of the Sea set into it one at the Straits of Gibralter and another vastly strong one of the Pontus which the Ships do with difficulty bear up against it must necessarily be allowed that this Sea does empty it self by subterraneous passages into some great receptacle of Waters underneath For otherways many Ages ago the Mediterranean had over-flow'd and drowned several Countries on the adjacent Shores Nay the fathomless bottoms there which some have tried in vain with so much Cordage to reach Vid. Dr. Smith's Account to the Royal Society in the Philosophical Transactions is the most evident proof which can be of the Truth of this Assertion And the same holds likewise in the Caspian-Sea And I think there is little doubt to be made but those dangerous Gulfs and Eddies which the Sailors shun in many parts of the Ocean are but only great Holes or subterraneous Passages through which the upper Sea is gulping down into the Abyss beneath Now if there be such a great Receptacle of Waters beneath the Earth as there is no question to be made of it so many mighty Seas continually running into it then the Earth must be hollow and only a superiour Crust concluding within it an Abyss of Waters as is represented Fig. I. and Fig. II. If there be the same Quantity of Water remaining as there was at the Creation then the total Hollow of the Earth will be filled up with Water but if any part of it be lost or consolidated upon the outward superficies of the Earths Crust then by the Laws of Attraction if the Water does not exceed in Gravity the Circumambient Earth it will lye round it in the Ring P S R Q and there will be a Hollow in the Central Part u w x z. But if the Body
the Sun staying so long in that one Point But if your account by Refraction were true the day must receive its Lengthening about Sun-setting when the Sun was near the Horizon and that not above a quarter of an hour at the most Neither could this easily come to pass in so thin an Atmosphere as that of Palestine Besides the Scripture says expresly that this was prayed for by Joshua in order to encourage the Jews and to dishearten their Enemies But why should he pray for such a natural Effect as you would have this to be Was it worth any ones while to wish for a minute or two more day light which it was impossible that either the Jews or their Enemies could observe But I am weary of answering such Arguments as these which fall of themselves and which I am confident can never convince those that urge them and 't is honester to deny the Authority of Scripture altogether than to explain the Force of it away by such jejune interpretations Phil. Why then Credentius if you would have me appear a Barefaced Infidel I must plainly tell you that I do not think that either Moses or the Prophets who succeeded him had any degree of that Inspiration which they pretended to For what ever is inspired must needs be true and agreeable both to Reason and Goodness but there are many things to be found in their Writings and Lives which are contrary to both I shall begin with Moses Indeed Credentius you have in some measure vindicated him from some Absurdities which are usually imputed to his History of the Creation * Conference with a Theist Part I. but I 'm afraid your Art will fail you in doing as much for some other Objections against his Books and Character Now I pray Sir what do you think of his History of the Deluge Don't you think this very odd that the whole World should be drown'd at the same time For my part I can as soon believe that a Man could be drown'd in his own Spittle as that the World should be deluged by the Water in it Now Moses says expresly that all the high Hills under the whole Heaven were covered Now to do this we must have water enough to reach up to the Top of the Pique of Tenariff which is at present three Miles perpendicular and at the Time of Noah much more a considerable part of it being washed down by the rains since Now where shall we find water to cover the Earth above three Miles high quite round If the whole Ocean were circumfused it would do little or nothing towards this effect much less a Rain of forty days For the Water of the Sea take one place with another is hardly a quarter of a Mile deep for though in some places in a deep Channel it may be half a Mile towards the shore it is but three or four fathoms so that all together it is not more than a quarter of a Mile deep But if this were all pumped out of the Channel of the Sea and kept against its Nature by a Miracle stagnating upon the higher Earth it could cover the whole Earth no deeper in Water than the Sea is now which is but a quarter of a Mile So that there will want two Miles and three quarters of the height which Moses assigns to it This is upon supposition that the Sea and the Dry Ground are nigh of the same Extent but I believe an exact survey of the Earth about the Northern and Southern Poles would shew that the Earth was much larger But granting them of the same bigness to raise the Channel of the Sea three Miles higher that is to the Tops of the highest Mountains round the World would take up twenty-four times as much Water as there is now in the Sea twelve Quarters of a Mile deep in Water i. e. twelve Oceans to be laid upon the Sea and twelve more upon the Land And then pray consider what becomes of the pretended Inspiration of Moses his History when 't is Demonstration that there is not the twentieth part of Water in the World as is sufficient to cause such a Deluge Cred. Difficulties of the Deluge accounted for Your Gentlemen are often wont to call that Demonstration which is oftentimes but lame Argument For nothing can be Demonstration against the Divine Power but absolute Incompatibility and Contradiction And every Supposition which shews the possibility of the thing is sufficient to overthrow your Demonstration as you call it And therefore several Learned and Ingenious Gentlemen have of late years set themselves to consider how to give a Philosophical Account of the Deluge and have published some Hypotheses upon this subject which are full of fine learning and curious Thought The main of all of them are good Argument against the Infidels because each Hypothesis shews the possibility of that Deluge which they deny As for the Ancient suppositions that this immense quantity of Water was owing to the coming down of the supercelestial Waters or the Condensation of Air they are I think a little too unphilosophical for this inquisitive Age and are therefore like to do very little good among the Unbelievers The most agreeable Remarks on the late Theories c. and surprizing Book which of late Years has offered it self to the World was Dr. Burnet's Theory upon this subject The Design whereof was so Great and Noble the Language so exact the Thought so delicate the whole work so uniform and of a piece with it self and adorned with such variety of pleasant learning wherein were such ingenious Accounts given of the Great Revolutions of Nature of the Formation of the World the Paradisiacal state of the Antediluvian Longevity the Deluge and Conflagration that tho' there might want some degrees of probability to make every Reader believe his Theory exactly True yet it pleased most of them so as to think it was pitty it was not Far be it from me to detract from the ingenious guesses of that Learned Man but yet there are some things in that Hypothesis which ly very difficult in my mind and do not seem so agreeable to the Mechanical Laws he goes by and other Phaenomena which are observable in Nature The Oval Figure which he ascribes to the Antediluvian Earth seems inconsistent with the present Figure which it is found to be of that is a Prolate Sphaeroide or an Oval turned about its lesser Axis i. e. of the fashion of a Loaf Which was a prudent design of Nature to make it of this figure because the additional Heaps of Ice and Snow which are continually lodged at the Poles by the vapours constantly flying North and South should never increase the Globe beyond a Circle His excluding the Annual Motion of the Earth and its Motion of Parallelism to the Poles of the World allowing it only a simple Motion round an Axis Parallel to the Poles of the Ecliptick and consequently taking away the vicissitude
the Comet is a watry Atmosphere much grosser than the Tail so as to afford nine times as much Water to the Earth passing through that as through the Tail for the Ring is by some curious observers thought to be only the curling and winding round of the smoke rising at first to a determinate height from all parts of the Comet and then making off to the part opposite to the Sun as you may see Fig. III. Neither do I fancy that the Earth passing even through the Atmosphere of a Comet could gain any more Water by that than any thing can do by passing through the smoke of a Chimney for both of them are but smoke only the former is the thinner as being the Fume arising from the Terreous part of the Comet by its Parelion almost vitrified and calcined the aqueous parts being first evaporated and sent off farther in the extremity of the Tail And besides I cannot conceive how the Earth should not almost have been fired and Noah and his Ark burnt to powder by the glowing heat of the melted Planet for according to my little Philosophy I should imagine it as comfortable living in a red hot Oven for an hour or two as in such a sultry Atmosphere as this And it is hard to think that this Comet should give no more disturbance in this part of the Universe but only to turn the Earths Annual Orbit from a Circle to an Ellipsis for according to Mr. Newton's Principles if the Comet had been bigger than the Earth it had carried it away to rights in its Parabola through the vast extra-Saturnine spaces and if it had been less it had been stopt by the Earth and so we had been troubled with its smoaky Tail about us ever since Or if it had been of the same bigness with the Earth and if it had well nigh the same celerity with the Earth we should have had the same troublesom Companion nevertheless or however it is ten thousand to one but it would have run away with our Moon if it had happened to have come nigher to That than the Earth does Nor does it ly easy upon my mind how such a prodigious quantity of Water that he supposes to have come from the Comet could be disposed of it is impossible it could be one quarter of it suspended in the Air or lodged in the Channels of the Seas for the Channels could bear no proportion to it Nor can I think the Seas were so much as inlarged by the Deluge but that they both before and since have been growing less and less by the prodigious quantities of Water employ'd in the production of Trees and Plants which are reduced afterward into Mold and always retain the species of Earth or ly buried in the Ground and never return to the Sea again To say nothing of how much more is employed in the concretion of Stones and conchous substances how much is licked up by the Aether out of the Atmosphere as the Earth is swiming through it how much more flies over in vapours to the Poles notwithstanding the Barricado of the Hills is frozen there and never returns again unless some few Particles it may be of them at some seasons of the Year in Winds and to pass over the observations of the Channels of great Rivers near the Sea which seem formerly to have been far broader than they are now and the many great Countries which the Sea has deserted And besides lastly in my mind it is impossible that the swelling of the Abyss should alter the figure of the Earths Crust from a Circle or Oval to a Sphaeroide that the Water had force enough to do it or that this effect could happen without shattering the whole Compages being of a brittle saxeous substance into pieces These are my reasons why I cannot acquiesce in the Hypothesis of that ingenious and learned Gentleman as exactly True Yet I think it a curious Essay to shew the Infidels not only the possibility of the Mosaick History but how finely it may be made to correspond with Philosophy and after all that 't is easier to find faults with this Theory than to compose another so good Phil. Well! Now you see how these great Wits are miserably at a loss to explain this unaccountable History and therefore it is in vain to try any further to explain that which will admit of no solution So that you had better ingenuously give up the Cause and own that it is an impossible Relation calculated only for the Illiterateness of those times to make the Jews stand in fear of the Deity when they were told that such a Tragical Punishment was inflicted by him upon Mankind for their Sins Cred. If God was the cause of the Deluge as our Religion supposes and not Natural and Mechanical Causes of their own proper Tendency then God might bring it to pass a thousand ways that we know nothing of for his Omnipotence will be able to bear up against all the pretended Impossibilities that you are able to raise against the History of the Deluge Tradition in all Nations of a Deluge 1. But if this History of the Deluge be such an impossible unaccountable History how come all the Nations of the World to have such an impossible Notion got into their Heads Though several Men might have the same unaccountable fancies yet it is hard to think that all Men should be troubled with the same Dreams And it seems to me to have more impossibility that all Nations should have Traditions of a Deluge if there had been no such thing as a Deluge than any you can shew me in the Deluge it self The Babylonians Phoenicians Assyrians in their Histories make mention of a Deluge as you may see in Eusebius and Josephus Deucalion's Flood was so famous in all the Greek and Latin Mythologists and Poets that nothing more need be said of it Martinius in his History of China relates the same of the Chinese and so does Josephus Acosta Herera and De Laet of the Americans And Lucian * De Deâ Syriâ relates the ancient Tradition they had of the Deluge at Hierapolis in Syria which is almost as exact as the Mosaick relation of it The account though it be something long is not unpleasant and deserves consideration This Race of Men which now is was not the first but that Race was quite destroyed But these are of a second Generation and from their first Progenitor Deucalion have increased to so great a Multitude as we see Now of those former Men they tell this story They being contentious did very unrighteous things they neither kept their Oaths nor were hospitable to strangers for which this great misfortune befel them All of a sudden the Earth gave out of her self a great quantity of Water there were mighty showers the Rivers overflowed the Sea was much higher by which all things became Water and all Men perished Only Deucalion was left unto the second
make a Great Hunter as a great Prophet But if they had understood better the Natural Causes of Inspiration they would never have been guilty of such manifest Absurdities For that Inspiration which the Jews and the Christians after them would needs have proceed immediately from God is only the effect of a vivid Imagination For it is not to be thought that the Prophets had any more immediate Converse with God Almighty than other Men but only they had warmer Heads a quicker Imagination and a more lively Fancy Other Mens Imaginations and Dreams did not leave such deep and lasting Impressions upon their Minds but were quickly over and they perceived that they were but Dreams and Fancies but the Prophetick Imaginators had such strong Fancies in their Heads that were as clear to them as the representations made by their outward senses and they thought they were as certain of what they so fansied as of what they heard or saw And 't is plain from Scripture that strong Imagination only is the grand Requisite for Prophecy And upon this account without doubt the Jews will not allow Solomon the Gift of Prophecy for he was a Wise Man in whom good sense and a clear Judgment was prevalent and therefore he was ill qualified for Prophecy to which Fancy was chiefly requisite So those famous Men in Scripture who are renowned for their Prudence Heman 1 Chr. 2.6 1 King 4.31 Darda Kalchol were not Prophets but on the other side the Prophets were for the most part out of the Country People or Men of no Erudition or sometimes Women as Hagar Abraham's Maid had the gift of Prophecy For these People having but little understanding had stronger Passions and did abound more in Imagination than Men who had better sense and who governed their Fancies by their Reason And that you may understand that Imagination was the Foundation of Revelation be pleased to consider that their Prophecies differ'd only by the diversity of their Imagination which is a plain Argument that the one was the cause of the other If the Prophet was of a merry chearful Temper then Victories and Peace were revealed to him because Men of that complexion are apt to entertain their thoughts with such delightful subjects If he was a Melancholy Man then he prophesied only Wars and judgments and such other dismal things which are usual to go along with such black Thoughts And so the like Diversity if the Prophet was addicted to Anger or Grief or Pitty And for the proof of this there is a remarkable Instance of Scripture 2 Kings 3.15 The three Kings of Judah Israel and Edon are in a great strait for want of Water for their Armies they go and consult Elisha the Prophet and he being very Angry at the sight of his Enemy the King of Israel tells him if it was not for the presence of Jehosophat King of Judah he would not look toward him nor see him Now he could not prophesie any thing that was pleasing to them whilst his Choler was so high And therefore he very prudently desires that a Minstrel should be brought him And when the Minstrel played the hand of the Lord came upon him That is the Musick put him in a good humour and then he was inclined to imagine as pleasant Things as the Kings would have him So when Moses was Angry with Pharaoh he had revealed to him the miserable slaughter of the Aegyptians first-born Exod. 11. So God was revealed to Cain when his Reason was over-clouded with passion when he was very wroth and his countenance fell Gen. 4.5 When Ezekiel was impatient with excessive Anger for the Text says the Spirit lifted him up in bitterness and in the hot Anger of his Spirit Ezek. 3.14 then he prophesies the miseries and stubbornness of the Jews So Jeremy was alway a Melancholy Man and weary of his Life and therefore he does nothing but prophesie dreadfull Calamities which should befall the Jews and upon this account King Josias would not consult him but chose rather to consult Hulda the Prophetess who being a Woman had more tender Passions and to whom it was more fit that the mercy of God should be revealed Nay oftentimes Revelation does proceed from the strong though false Opinions of Men. Thus King Nebuchadnezzar's Augurs Prophesie of the Destruction of Jerusalem by looking into the Entrals of Beasts and by divining with Arrows Ezek. 21.21 and thus the Nativity of Christ was revealed to the Magicians Mat. 11. who believed the fooleries of Astrology under the Imagination of a Star which they supposed to have arisen in the East So that in short this Prophetick Imagination was a very good way of recommending a Religion to the Jews who were a very ignorant People and were more wrought upon by these fanciful Representations of God made by the Prophets the descriptions of his feigned Appearance Interlocution Promising Threatning than by any just and Philosophical Discourses of Vertue and Vice which should be made to them Not but that Natural Knowledge does include more certainty than this Imaginary Prophecy only this latter serves better for the use of less inquisitive Men. For Natural Knowledge brings Self-Evidence with it but Revelation requires always a Sign or reputed Miracle which the Prophets were forced to make use of as the Credentials of their Prophecy Indeed Revelation may have something in it of a moral Certainty that the Men who pretend to it are honest well meaning Men and that the matter which they speak is designed for the bettering of Mankind and the reclaiming them from their Vices but I think there is little evidence concerning â—t that it proceeds immediately from God and that it may not proceed from â—atural Causes as I think I have already sufficiently shewed it to have done Therefore I wonder Credentius that a Man of your sense should have recourse to occult Qualities and an Omnipotent Power to explain matters which you see might be accounted for by such an â—asy cast of your Philosophy Cred. For my part Sir That Prophecy doth not consist in Imagination I do not care â—o make use of my Philosophy to dispute â—way my Religion nor do I see any â—eason why Men should use so much â—ndustry and Artifice to prove That Revelation does not proceed from God when wise Men in all Ages have ever â—llow'd it Read but Jamblichus his Book of Mysteries and Tully de Divinatione and you will see the Opinion of those wise Heathens that the divine Nature has â—evealed it self to Mankind and that 〈◊〉 prescience of future things can come no other way than by a Revelation from God Xen. Memorabil Lib. 1. And hear how admirably Socrates â—n Xenophon as well as a Heathen could â—e expected reasons of these matters Of â—ll these predictions to refer none to the revelation of God but only to humane pruâ—ence is says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be perfectly mad That in those things which are
might guess them to be of Jewish Original For probably when the first Jews saw the Neighbouring Gentiles worshiping the Natural Gods as Sun Moon Earth Water c. they to shew these constant mutable and visible Gods to be under the dominion of their Jehovah or Invisible one began to brag of the Miracles which they pretended Jevovah had done by triumphing over poor Nature for their dear sake for whom they were fond to believe all things were made Thus this notion got from the Jews to other Nations and so they have been coining Miracles ever since But really Sir a Miracle in your sense is Non-sense For you suppose something above the power of nature which is the greatest and highest power in the World For the power of Nature is the power of God Nature is one eternal fixt immutable Chain which is infinitely drawing out and expanding it self and not capable of the least alteration now if it was possible as you suppose by a Miracle that one Link of this should be disturbed or broken the whole frame of nature would be confounded and the whole Scheme of future Beings would be infinitely irregular Nature is the Eternal Will and Decree of God executing it self and the Will of God is his very Essence however it is firm and immutable nay impossible to be changed by the contrary Will of God himself and therefore we may be sure it is not to be interrupted by the Hocus Pocus of every Capricious Prophet And indeed Miracles are nothing else but the Dreams of blockheaded brains or a ready solution of what the uneducated Mob are wont to gape at and can give no account of so that I doubt not but that a common Almanack-maker that could calculate an Eclipse or write it out of an Ephemeris would be a most wonderful Prophet among the Indians but when these People by liberal Education come to understand the exact motions of the Heavenly Bodies the Miracle would be at an end Nay any thing that is unusual is by the vulgar reputed a Miracle because forsooth they admire it though it be never so natural but it ceases to be a Miracle when their Admiration is wrought of Thus a Comet is to them a most wonderful Miracle because it appears but now and then in a great many Years but the Sun is no Miracle at all because they see it every day not that they understand the nature of the Sun better than that of a Comet but by continually beholding it it does not make so great impression upon their fancies and therefore they cease to admire it And I doubt not but this is the true reason of most of the reputed Miracles of Scripture which are but the unusual works of nature which would necessarily have been for all any Inspired Person but only they being uncommon works of nature the vulgar wondred at them and deemed them Miracles O! but we must have a care of exploding Miracles because they do demonstrate the being of a God and very lamely too For the necessary Laws of Nature and the frame of the World are a thousand times more demonstrative of it For Miracles or Interruptions in Nature make wise Men rather doubt of it and seem rather fortuitous Blunders than the wise works or Efflux of the Deity Nay what proof is there by Miracles of any thing else or that any Doctrine came from God For the Jewish Law allows that Miracles might be done by false Prophets as appears by Deut. 13.1 If there arise among you a Prophet and giveth thee a sign or wonder and the sign or wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other gods c. you shall not hearken unto the Prophet for the Lord your God proveth you Nay what were the Jews the better for all the Miracles they had among them supposing they were true Moses with all his Miracles was not gone from them but a few days but they were turned as arrant Heathens as any in the World and fancying the Image of God into the figure of a Calf Nay for all Miracles and Inspirations the great Solomon himself was a down-right Epicurean and imagined all things to come by chance Eccl. 3.19 20. Cred. By your leave good Philologus You have heaped here together so many Falsities or Mistakes that I am forced to interrupt you before you go any further First notion of Miracles not from the Jews 1. I pray what reason have you to think that the notion of Miracles had its origin from among the Jews Had not the Greeks and Romans in the earliest time before they ever consorted with the Jews the same notions What more common in Homer and Virgil than strange Prodigies which are wont to amaze whole Armies till they be unridled and rendered favourable by some Augur What more usual in Greek and Latin Authors than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ostenta Portenta Miracula And you may see a whole Chapter of several of these Miracles collected together in Valerius Maximus and a great deal of the same in Plutarch Inquire of any Barbarous Nations in the World and you shall find that they have the same notion of Miracles though they never heard of the Jews For our notion of Miracles that it is the extraordinary power of God or a power above Nature is natural and easy to the minds of all Mankind but that a Miracle should be the necessary power of unwonted nature is only a Dream of the Hobbian Philosophy that few People who are awake think of 2. No Immutable Chain of Nature Neither is it any good Argument against Miracles that they would break your fixt and immutable Chain of Nature which you contend for For there is no proof that there is any such fixt immutable Chain for if there was there would be no such thing as Freedom either in God or Man but all things would be bound up by a rigid Fate of which every word we speak or action which we do is a sufficient Confutation Now either this fixt immutable Chain of Causes is God himself or the Creature or Work of God That it is not God himself I think I have sufficiently evinced Conference with a Theist Part I. in a former Discourse with you from the Absurdities which would follow by allowing in God all the Imbecillities Vices and Irregularities in Nature which are inconsistent with his Infinite Perfection And the Freedom of Man the Spontaneous Actions of Brutes and the Alterations and Changes in the inanimate parts of the World are sufficient Arguments against the latter Now if the World be the Creature of God as we have proved it to be then it must be subject to his Power and Providence For God's Creation supposes it subject to his power for what is not subject to the Power of God must have a greater Power of its own to resist his Power But this is impossible for the World or nature to have because all the
of Seasons which is one of the greatest Beauties of the World and leaving the greater part of it uninhabitable is a matter which one cannot so easily comply with especially when the first Chap. of Genesis says that the Stars shall be for times and for seasons and for Days and for years And so is his exclusion from thence of the Seas Hills and Great Rivers allowing only some trilling streams from the Poles For the World without the Sea would be but a Prison where Men would be lock'd up from one another without intercourse would have no communication in Commerce Arts Invention but People must be content to live uncomfortably at home upon their own Stocks and their own Improvements Without Hills Men would be bereaved of the Ornament and Convenience of Metals of the usefulness of Minerals and Stones and Men would have wanted Money Domestick Utensils Physick and Buildings Nay without Hills to drain off the Mist and Rains and Seas to evaporate the Mist and Rains from it is unaccountable to me how there should be such a thing as a River in the World and I fancy the easy descent upon the declivity of an Oval as big as the Earth is not agreeable to the Laws of Hydrostaticks and the usual current of Waters Nor is it less difficult to me to imagine how a Crust of so vast a Thickness as that of the Earth must be should be broken by any natural force especially being supported equally by the subterraneous Waters or as for any fissures or cracks by the Heat of the Sun they are demonstrated in the hottest Countries not to go many Yards into the Ground and as for any Earth-quakes raised by evaporation of the Abyss below every Ditcher can tell that the Heat of the Sun-beams does not go so many inches under Ground as this Hypothesis must suppose Leagues and besides Earth-quakes and subterraneous Eruptions are not caused by rarefied Vapours but by the accension of sulphureous Damps which like Gun-powder rend tear and carry all before them and are often wont to break out in visible Flame Nay further those vast Fissures and ugly Gaps would have been more inconvenient and unsightful in the Antediluvian Earth than the most barren Mountains and roughest Seas are with us Neither does the usual depth of the Channels of the Sea seem to answer to the Depth of the Abyss nor the regularity of the Mountains to the accidental Fragments of such a Crust There would then appear frequently prodigious Wells and Gaps where the fragments did not exactly meet and such horrid and naked Apices which could not by this time have been any thing smoothed by Rains or covered with Grass or Herbs Nay even in the very situation of the Mountains and greatest Hills there appears wise contrivance and not accidental Fracture for to go no further than our own Country all our great Ridges of Hills in England run East and West so do the Alps in Italy and in some measure the Pyrenees so do the Mountains of the Moon in Africk and so does Mount Tauras and Caucasus And further there appears a prudent foresight in not making the ridges of Hills continued but by breaking them off into Tumuli or Heads parts of each of which lies obliquely behind another and generally admits a skew passage between For unless there was such a Ridge of Hills frequent from East to West the Vapours would all run Northward and there would be no rains in the Mediterranean Countries but the Rivers dried up and the Sea it self in time evaporated and frozen into Polar Ice And unless the Hills were divided into these oblique Breaks so as to keep back the Vapours and let in the Northern Air the World would be far more liable to Pestilences and Putrefaction than now they are and all Places as unhealthy as Scanderoon These things with the Deduction of the Americans from another race than Noah and some other matters of less consequence are my reasons why I cannot subscribe to that learned Doctor 's Solution of the Noachical Deluge and therefore must beg his leave to cast about and see if I can find a better elsewhere that I can more easily acquiesce in Dr. Woodward to whom the World is forever indebted for his curious and diligent Observations of Shells and Minerals and other subterraneous Phaenomenas has promised in his Essay a more natural Hypothesis but one of the Grounds which he designs to build his Theory upon does seem to me so precarious and impossible that I must see a great deal of good proof before I can assent to it For it does not appear to me how it is possible that the waters continuance a few months upon the face of the Earth should dissolve the Compages of the most rigid Fossils and suspend the particles of them all in the circumfused water except only conchous substances and that when the waters were withdrawn they should be let down to fix and be compacted again For if it was possible that water in so short a space could dissolve Marbles and Adamants yet methinks the same should more easily dissolve Oister-shells and Cockles which are of a more tenuous composition and more easy of Dissolution Mr. Whiston in his Theory has avoided most of the Difficulties which were chargeable upon the First and has given the World a Tast of the extraordinary Mathematical and Philological Learning he stands possest of The chief fault I find in him is that he has stuck more to Mr. Newton's than Moses his Philosophy and seems too too fond and credulous of his Ingenious Hypothesis of the Comet Nay the imputing this great Catastrophe to the necessary Laws of a Comets Trajection which the Scriptures tell us was sent by God for the Sin of Mankind seems to give too great a scope for the scoffs of Libertines and the Atheistical Fatality His Turning Days into Years and denying the Diurnal Revolution of the Earth at first is methinks a little too bold when it does not seem at all to favour his Hypothesis but only to give God six Years time to work in when the Infidels already grudge him so much at six days His fancying two Courses of Rain from the Scripture which only seems to repeat the Relation of one is not to me so satisfactory nor his Exclusion of Clouds and Mists which is agreeable indeed to the Burnettian Theory but I think not to his Neither can I conceive that the bare passing through the Tail or Atmosphere of a Comet could afford the thousand part of the Water that Theory has occasion for and he himself is forced to fetch a great part of it from the Abyss Nor is it credible that the Earth a cold Planet should go off with 750,000 Miles of the Comets Tail which could not be supported by the Comet it self but only by reason of the burning heat of the Body of it And it is a mistake I suppose to think that the round Circle about the Body of
of Water be of greater Gravity than the Crust of the Earth then the Mass of it will lie next to the thickest part of the Earth or where there is more Matter so that if the Earth be thicker about the Pole X or if there be any Internal solid there it will then lie round part of the Limbus of the Earth U T X Y and leave the Hollow at U Y. Fig. II. Now suppose the Diameter of the Earth or Terraqueous Globe to be as it is thereabouts 8000 Miles and the thickness of the Crust of the Earth a 32d part of this as the second Figure represents then the Crust will be 250 Miles thick which will be a solidity strong enough to contain the Internal Waters to resist the chapping from the Sun to keep a consistency in all the rapid motions of the Earth Or let it be an Eighth part as is represented Fig. I. and then the Earths Crust will be 500 Miles thick which to be sure is abundantly sufficient Now upon either of these two Suppositions there will be Water enough when drawn out upon the superficies of the Earth to drown the World to a far greater height than what Moses relates Now it is but supposing that God by a Miraculous power sucked out part of this Abyss through the Foramina or subterraneous passages which ly dispersed at Bottom of the Sea as suppose about the Point T of Fig. II. to the height of four or five Miles and then the highest Mountains will be laid under Water the Water diffusing it self both ways from h to k so that if it be in h four Miles high it will be at least three in k And then if after that the suspending force were taken off and the Water descended through the same Foramina and left the Earth dry as it was before you have Philologus at least a possible Account of the Deluge Phil. But truly Sir this Miraculous power sticks most in my Stomach That is so strangely Unphilosophical and such a subterfuge of dull Divines that methinks any Man of sense should be ashamed to make use of that shift Besides I am not very well reconciled to your Waters which you suppose to fill up the Hollow of the Earth Indeed those who allow a Central solid have somewhat more to say for themselves but your Hypothesis destroys the Laws of Specifick Gravity and makes the lighter Waters most unnaturally to ly below the Crust of the heavy Earth Cred. Let the supposition of a Miraculous Power in the Deluge be as Unphilosophical as you please I am sure it is more Unchristian and more Unreasonable to suppose that it came to pass by natural Causes For if it came to pass by natural Causes there must have been a Deluge whether the Antediluvian World had been so wicked or no and then the Preaching of Noah to them had been all collusion and God's Menaces before-hand had been inconsistent both with his Justice and Verity If they had repented upon Noah's Instructions they could not have escaped the Deluge which by this supposition depended upon necessary Causes and could not but have been Or to say that it was necessary both for the Antediluvians to be so perversly wicked and that the Deluge must likewise happen is to assert a Fatality of sinning is at the same time to destroy all Religion Free-Will and the Goodness of God 'T is therefore plain that the Deluge did not depend upon natural and necessary Causes but upon the just and providential Power of God which over-ruled the Power of Nature and might either bring the Deluge upon the World or withhold it according to his good Pleasure and Wisdom or as the Deserts of Mankind did require Neither is your Notion of specifick Gravity any Objection against our Supposition of an Abyss being included within the Crust of the Earth even without the Fancy of a Central Solid or Dense Fluid which some imagine For the notion of a Central Solid is but a Contrivance to keep in the Central Fire that some men fancy there which otherways would be quenched by the circumambient Waters But this Central Fire is only Cartesius his Conceit who by this means has contrived to turn burning Earths into Suns and incrustated Suns into Earth which is a Fancy the World now begins to be weary of And as for a dense Fluid that I take to be a more precarious Hypothesis and less to be relied upon than the other Neither can it be supposed that Nature must be confined to work in the Creation according to the Laws of specifick Gravity For according to this Rule the Sun which is the Centre of the Magnus Orbis must be the densest of all the Planetary System which though it be the biggest yet is the most thin and Refined See Mr. Newton's Princip Philos Math. Venus Mercury and the Moon though nigher to the Centre of the System are Denser than the Earth Neither is this rule observable in the Earth it self For several of the heaviest Fossils as Metals Marble and Stone lie often very high towards the surface of the Earth and other lighter Strata below them Nor is there any reason to think that God in the Creation wrought by such Laws of Gravity For without doubt he wrought either by his immediate Omnipotent Power or else by a subordinate Plastick Nature as he does in the Production of Animals and Vegetables since And here the Laws of specifick Gravity have little or nothing to do nay we see they are constantly superseded When the Fibres of a Tree thrust themselves upwards from the Centre and the Juices of it contrary to their own proper Tendency are drawn up so many foot from the Ground what become here of the Laws of specifick Gravity Is the body of any Animal composed after this manner If this were so there would be no such thing as Organical Parts which are composed so admirably for the Use and Beauty of the Animal If this were so a Man which is the most Beautiful would be the most clumsy Creature in the Creation His Bones must all lie towards his Feet his Flesh next to them his Blood and Spirits where his Head And then consider what a Monster of a Creature this specifick Gravity would make him Neither does it avail any thing to say that the Composition of an Animal does in some measure answer to the Laws of specifick Gravity because the heavy Bones which lie inmost are inclosed with the Flesh and Blood which are lighter But then pray consider that the Bones were not placed there by this Law but by the prudent direction of nature to support the pliable Flesh and to extend it to that just proportion which she designed But granting the supposition True yet the Marrow which is much lighter than the Bones is concluded within them the Bones being its superficial Crust in the same manner as we suppose the Earth to be to the Abyss Now why should not we suppose
the point D then the Orbit of the Moon shall be inlarged to u s t equal to her former one I p i l or as great as her other she had before the Acceleration of the Earths Motion So that then the Moon being as far distant from the Earth as formerly she was those great Tides will be over and the Deluge at an End all the Waters being again sunk into the Belly of the Earth through the same Cavities by which they ascended Phil. But stay Sir this does not much mend the matter for this attributes the cause of the Flood only to the breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep which Moses likewise attributes to another cause viz. the Rain of forty days and forty nights Cred. Indeed Moses says that at the beginning of the Deluge it rained forty Days and Nights but he does not say that these Rains added any thing considerably to the Deluge of the whole World They only raised the Waters to such a height that the Ark was born up and swam upon the Waters And the Flood or Rain was forty Days upon the Earth and the Waters increased and bore up the Ark and it was lift up above the Earth Gen 7.17 But in the two following Verses is expressed the Effect of the Waters rising out of the Abyss And the Waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the Earth and the Waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth and all the high Hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered So that what was the Effect of the Rains to lift up the Ark Moses calls only increasing of the Waters but when he afterwards speaks of the eruption of the Abyss he says a great deal more that Waters increased greatly and prevailed exceedingly And indeed this previous Flood from the Rains or Preludium of the Deluge was wisely designed by God Almighty that the Ark might be lift up before the Torrent from the Abyss came or otherways such a mighty Current running with so great a Force would have overthrown and drowned it before it could have been lifted up But a Rain of forty Days having before made a Land-Flood great enough to bear up the Earth the fury of the roaring Torrent of the Abyss would be broken by the yielding Waters under the Ark and so would by degrees be raised to the height which the Waters rose to without Danger I will not contend that there was no more than this forty Days Rain for it is probable that it Rained the greatest part of the Time that the Waters covered the surface of the Earth for the Sea then being above as large again as it formerly was must supply a far greater quantity of vapours than could possibly be suspended in the Air and therefore must fall down in frequent or continual spouts or Rains This I take Philologus to be a possible account of the Deluge and is a sufficient confutation of them who decry it as an impossibility Phil. Well! supposing that the Absurdities of Moses his relation of the Deluge are not so great as are generally imagined yet I cannot allow him to be a true Prophet because the pretended Miracles by which he endeavoured to establish his Laws and Doctrines seem to me to be mere Artifice contrived only to beguile the silly Jews and to lead them tamely by the Nose without opposition They poor Creatures thought that God wrought mighty Miracles by his hand whilst he was only working Designs for himself to purchase himself Admiration among the Rabble or else to gain a Jurisdiction under the specious name of a Theocracy But alas these Miracles are all Craft and Collusion which any Cunning Man might seem to do If he had but such simple Inspecters Witness his pretending to receive the Law in Mount Sinai where he gave out that he conversed with God who appeared there in smoke and thundering and lightening No doubt the poor folks were strangely amazed at this terrible Scene But Moses or any other intelligent Man knew well enough that there was no great matter in it For all this wonderful Appearance was in all probability only a Volcano in that Mountain which Moses did very politically forecast that the Jews should not come to the knowledge of For if they had run gazing up the Mountain as well as he the secret would have been found out and the Miracle spoil'd But Moses very prudently commands Ex. 19.13 that a hand shall not touch the Mountain but he shall be stoned or shot through whether it be beast or man nay not so much as the Priests themselves must come up lest the Lord break forth upon them ver 24. but only Moses and Aaron who were let into the Mystery must come there Nor is this Volcano in Mount Sinai only a Conjecture but is confirmed by the observation of Travellers who still behold the Mountain full of Ashes which do plainly shew the Ruins as it were of an extinguished Aetna This Credentius is an Objection not to be bantered off for if this stands your whole revealed Religion shakes because this is the very Foundation of the Jewish and Christian Institution and if there be any Trick here as is much to be feared all that is built upon it is good for nothing Cred. There is so much false suggestion and groundless Assertion in this last Objection that it is intolerable and one had need of the Patience of that Holy Religion you are opposing to be unmoved at it 1. But 'pray Sir what By-Ends had Moses to serve by his playing this sham Prank as you do suppose in the Mount He could not get a greater Authority over them than He had before he had been their Deliverer from the Aegyptians and was their conducter in the Wilderness and had as absolute command over that People as could be desired Neither could Fame or a Desire of raising his Family put him upon any such indirect Methods For he seems to have been the most sincere and modest and most disinterested Man of all Men that ever lived He is so open and faithful in his History as to record his own Failures and those of his dearest Relations his Brother and Sister He gave the Priesthood which was the most considerable honour in that Nation away to his Brother Aaron's Family contenting himself that his own Posterity should only be ranked among the Ordinary Levites And at his Death disposed of the Government to Joshua a Stranger Neither is it credible that he would make use of such a mean trick as this which was so easy to be discovered by every bold Man whose curiosity might prompt him to venture the Menaces especially when he had established sufficiently in them an Opinion of his miraculous power by all the wonders which he had done in Aegypt and at the red Sea 2. Nor is there any tolerable ground for this supposition of a Vulcano's being formerly in Mount Sinai I know your Brother Infidels make a mighty Noise with this story but
Dei totusque moveri Mons circum mugire adytis cortina reclusis all things do seem to quake The Doors and Laurels of the Gods do shake The tott'ring Mountain moves in Eddies round And from the Curtain creeps a hollow sound So whenever the coming of Hecate is described as in Theocritus his Pharmaceutria c. Or when any great Deity appears as that great Demogorgon which Lucan mentions Lib. 3. the Earth is always said to tremble peretis an ille Compellandus erit quo nunquam terra vocato Non concussa tremit But after all here was not the least ground to suspect any Deceit in this wonderful occurrence for Moses deals very openly with the Israelites in this matter and suffers them to come up into the Mountain after the LORD had departed thence And there is a signal given them when they shall venture to come When the Trumpet soundeth along they shall come up to the Mount Exod. 19. v. 13. Now if there had been any thing of this pretended Vulcano in the Mountain that Moses had cheated them with to be sure Moses had forbid them to come up to the Mountain altogether for their viewing those natural Eruptions afterwards would have laid open the Cheat as much as if they had been present when Moses gave out he was receiving his Law from God who exhibited himself in that Appearance Phil. But still Credentius there is another of this Legislator's Actions which sticks much in my stomach and that is his making the Jews believe that by a divine power he turned the Waters of the Red-Sea into two solid Walls standing up on each side of the Israelites to let them pass through upon the dry-ground But to say nothing of the pleasantness of this Miracle Methinks this was but a cast of the Legislator's Cunning to coin a Miracle out of the Seas Low-water For it is a Tradition among the Aegyptians that Moses being a little more subtile than the ignorant Jews or the Aegyptians which pursued him understood the exact time of the Tide of that Sea and so carried over upon the Ebb his People safe whilst the Aegyptians were lost for lack of better observation * Ant. Lib. 2. Cap. ult Which Thought so wrought upon the Learned Josephus that he allow'd the same to be done by Alexander in passing the Pamphylian Sea Or however this Miracle is much lessened if we assert with a great many of the Divines that the Jews did not cross the Sea but only went in a little way and came out again on the same side and then ignorant folks that lived far off from the Sea might be imposed upon at the same rate every time 't is low water with us Cred. It is a wonder at this time of Day that you witty Gentlemen who are endeavouring to settle all things upon a new Bottom should be beholding to one of old Porphyry's Cavils to bespatter our Religion or to an idle Tale of the Aegyptians But in answer to these Insinnations 1. I am of Opinion The Israelites did not pass round the Head of the Sinus there is no reason to think but that the Israelites passed quite through the Channel of the Sea from one shore to the other For the only reason which gave rise to the other Opinion was the Relation of the Journies of the People Numb 23. where v. 6. it is said that they departed from Succoth which is on the Aegyptians side of the Red Sea and pitched in Etham and from thence moved to Pi-hahiroth passed through the midst of the Sea into the Wilderness and so went three days journey into the Wilderness of Etham Whence they conclude that Etham and the Wilderness of Etham must needs be on the same side of the Sea and consequently the Jews did not march cross the Sea but only through one side of it in a semicircle and out again a little higher on the same side But this is contrary to the express words of Scripture which say they passed through the middle of the Sea And as for the difficulty about Etham that is fairly solved by allowing only two Ethams the one a Town which they encamped at on the Aegyptian side the second on the Erabian side a Wilderness Instances of which are common enough in Scripture and Prophane Histories But if we must needs have the Wilderness of Etham denominated from the Town Mr. Le Clerk * Dissert de Maris Idumaei traject has ingeniously guessed that Etham the Town was situated nigh the upper part of the Sinus Arabicus and gave denomination to a great Desert which surrounded the Head of that Bay and reached down a considerable way on both sides So that though they marched from the Wilderness of Etham cross the Bay they would be only in another part of the Wilderness of Etham still The Waters did not stand erect 2. Neither do I see any reason to assert that the Waters are miraculously consolidated or that they did in a literal sense stand on an heap or erect like a Wall But only God sent a strong Wind as the Text says which blew back the Tide and all the waters which covered the sands over against Pi-hahiroth further towards the Ocean leaving some waters stagnating towards the Head of the Sinus all along towards the Mediterranean Sea So that by this mean the sholes about Pi-hahiroth must needs be left dry for the Israelites to pass over Indeed it must be a North wind which must produce this effect or at least a North-East whereas our Translation says an East But there is no necessity of translating Cadim East it signifying only a strong wind And so St. Jerom interprets it ventum vehementem urentem a vehement and burning wind And Ps 48.7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarsis with a Kadim the LXX Vid. Cler. Diss translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a mighty wind Vid. Ez. 27.26 Job 27.21 Jer. 18.17 And then this explication will be very agreeable to the words of the Text and that division which is assigned to the Waters there And the Lord caused the Sea to go back by a strong East-Wind all that night and made the Sea dry-land and the Waters were divided Ex. 14.21 Now as for those words in the song of Moses and Miriam where it is said that the Flouds stood upright as an heap and the Depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea that must be taken only as a Poetical or Metaphorical Expression And where it is said that the Waters were a Wall unto them it must be understood only that there were Waters on both sides the sholes they passed over And this is agreeable to the expression in the Prophet Nahum Art though better than No-ammone or populous No that was situate among the Waters that had Waters round about it whose Rampart was the Sea and whose Waters were a Wall Nah 3.8 Not beat back by a natural Wind. 3. Nor did this come