condensed turns to Water And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Air being condensed may be compressed into Water And then brings in Heraclitus affirming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Destruction of Air to be the generation of Water To this also the Lord Verulam consents offering to make it good by sundry Experiments Though all of them I think come short of Demonstration or of a clear and satisfactory proof of the Phaenomenon And to name the two greatest Philosophers next Aristotle asserts this transmutation in his Book de Mundo And Des-Cartes subscribes to it as possible and real When those Globules move a little slower than ordinary they may change Water into Ice and the Particles of Air into Water And the Famous and Honourable Mr. Boyle in his 22. Experiment leaves it undetermin'd whether or no Air be a primigenial Body that cannot now be generated and turned into Water And truly as Clavius his Glass of spring-Spring-water mentioned in that Experiment Hermetically sealed up for fifty Years past and reposited in the Musaeum Kercherianum does not prove that Water can't be turn'd into Air because the Water continu'd there so long without diminution so neither will M. Rohault's Glass seal'd up the same way full of Air and kept in a Vessel of Water in a Wine-Cellar three whole Years argue that Air can't be turn'd into Water because none of that Air at the three Years end was found to have suffered such a change there being not the least drop of Water in the Glass We only learn from hence that we have not yet attain'd to the right Operation of changing these Elements into one another We will grant therefore that by the power of Nature Air may be turned into Water Yet neither will that take off the whole Difficulty in this Case For if most of the Air incircling the Earth had been thus changed and all of it could not because then respiration would have been impossible to Mankind and the surviving Animals in the Ark it could not have furnisht Water enough for the Flood a great deal of Air going to make up a little quantity of Water Which the proportion of gravity betwixt Water and Air of equal bulk it being found to be as of a thousand to one does sufficiently evince But in case it could have yielded Water enough yet inconveniences would still have remained Particularly it would have endangered sucking down the Moon as the Theorist observes The changing also of one great Body into another which after transmutation takes up so much less room than it did before does either suppose that the whole Frame of the World must sink closer together which would occasion a strange discomposure in it to fill up the space that Change would make empty or that in Nature there must be a Vacuum Though by the way when our SAVIOUR multiplied Bread upon Earth that need have no such influence on the World either as to expansion or contraction of it as the new Creation of Waters above mentioned or this production of them by transmutation does imply For besides that the Matter changed was much less in quantity the change might be made in such a Substance as did take up just the same room in the World before its mutation as after it Fig 4 Pag 317 Nor need we trouble our selves in the Sixth place about Sub-terrestrial Waters Which if never so free passages had been opened for them could no more have flowed up out of the Bowels of the Earth than Waters can do out of our deepest Wells Yea with much more difficulty they must have ascended in regard they were far deeper in the ground and also must have boiled up against the weight and pressure of the incumbent Flood even then when perhaps it was a Mile or two high As for Blood flowing out of a Vein when prickt in a Man's Head it is nothing like a Proof that Water may rise and flow above its source For there is a vital strength and motion forcing it out and Nature conspires as much to help the Course of that Blood as she does to hinder this Course of the Waters we speak of Engines it may be in the heart of the Earth might be able to send up Waters on to the surface of it as the Heart in the midst of the Body sends Blood to its Extremities But we hear of no Engines made to raise the Flood Nor need we in the Last place to betake our selves to a Topical or Partial Deluge A thing which some have done meerly to avoid the necessity of such a vast deal of Water as they knew not where to have for a general Flood according to the rate of the old Hypothesis or in case they could have had it knew not how to get rid of it again Whereas let fifteen Cubits above the Earth be the highest Water-mark of the Flood and then as the Clouds and Caverns would have yielded Water enough to raise it so when its work was done the quantity of this Water would not have been so excessive but it might easily be dried up in that space of time in which Moses declares it was so And this is that which in the Second place gives countenance to our Hypothesis It makes the Flood to be such as Nature out of her Store-houses could very well send on to the Earth and when she had done as conveniently take it off again And so we are excused from running to those Causes or Methods which seem unreasonable to some and unintelligible to others and unsatisfactory to most 6. A Third thing which gives credit to our Conjecture and makes it look like truth is its agreeing so handsomely with St. Peter's Description of the Deluge The Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water whereby the World that then was being overflowed with Water perished 2 Pet. 3. 5 6. How exactly does this suite with the Hypothesis proposed For according to it the Earth stood partly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Water the most of it being overflowed and in such a measure as that the Animal World thereby perished And yet a great part of the Earth as much as the upper parts of high Mountains come to was standing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Water at the same time Yea if a Zeugma in the words makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing relate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heavens as well as to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth yet our Explication of the Deluge will fall in very fairly with that too Inasmuch as the Heavens stood then in the Water and out of the Water as well as the Earth For their Territories were then invaded in some measure the Water rising where it incroached least fifteen in most places it may be thirty forty or fifty Cubits into them And therefore so high they were standing in the Water as all above was standing out of the
considering how slowly they must have crept as having no kind of Precipices or steeper downfals to quicken them and how glib they must have been by gliding gently upon the fat and viscous Glebe and what a thick and thrummy and close wrought Mantle the Earth then wore for them to have furrowed out deep and winding passages in that Earth must have been a good whiles work again if fecible at all without the help of Art For Lastly It seems improbable that any Rivers without the help of that should have been produced The reason is this The Rains descending at all times and in all places alike a round the Poles and the whole surface of the Earth being more level and even than any Plain in the World the Waters instead of parting into streams would have spread over all the Earth at once in a general diffusion as any one may find by pouring Water upon a Globe By which overflow the Primigenial Soil which was a light and soft Mold being suppled into a perfect Moor or Quagmire must have continued drowned till by reducing the Water into artificial Canels it could have been laid dry But when there would have been hands for this great work GOD making Mankind but in one single Pair let them that please consider And they may think also where Paradise could have been and what shift poor Fowls and Beasts yea Men themselves should have made till the Earth like a Fen thus under Water could have been cut and drained 3. Now so slow and late a Production of Rivers would have drawn two great inconveniences after it It would have clashed with Scripture and charged Providence with Preposterousness First It would have clashed with Scripture For no sooner was Man created and placed in Paradise but presently we read That a River went out of Eden to water the garden Gen. 2. 10. But had all Rivers come into being as the Theory teaches one could never have been there so early Nor did it go out of Eden by running through it only but it arose there say some and as much is signified they would perswade us by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes its going out they tell us as a Child goes out of the Womb and so the River must be born in Eden or spring up originally there But the Word is too commonly used in a larger sense both in the Sacred and Rabbinical Writings to have any such stress laid upon it Though most certain it is that a River there was in Eden and in order of Divine Story and so why not in order of time very early even before the Fall of Adam or the Formation of Eve And which is farther remarkable it was a large River too for it was parted into several Heads and able to feed most considerable streams One of which namely Euphrates is reckoned among the biggest Rivers in the World to this day But had it come by derivation from the Polar Fountains it could never have been made so soon much less could it have been so large And then besides we read at the Sixth Verse of the same Chapter that GOD had not caused to rain upon the Earth as yet and so that River could not possibly proceed from Rains that fell about the ends or Poles of it Though by the way how that Expression should countenance an Impluvious state before the Flood as the Latin Theory would â—ake it is not so clear and easie to be understood For if we consider there was no Water upon that Earth but what fell in Rain And in two Regions of that Earth there were Rains continually descending and they seem to have been of little other use than for those Rains to come down in And to say That by the Earth there was meant only Regiones cultâ— or the inhabited Countries of the Earth would be an unwarranted restriction of the Scriptures sense For in the Story of the Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth is still put as we may observe for the entire Globe of the Earth or at least for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole face of the ground as Gen. 2. 6. Nor may it be said to be spoken ad captum vulgi as to the common peoples apprehension For surely they were not such dull Souls in the first World but had Nature stood in that order as the Theory sets it they would have traced their Rivers to their heads many hundreds of Years before the Deluge and have been generally and throughly acquainted with those Rains by which they were raised They would then have known as well that Rivers came from Rains at the ends of the Earth as we do now that Gold comes from Guinea or the distant Indies Yea the want of room they multiplying exceedingly would have forced them to find out the rainy Regions while they must have spread their Colonies to the Borders of them Secondly It would tax the Providence of Heaven with Praeposterousness That is in reference to one sort of Animals the Fishes For then they must have been brought into being before there were fit Receptacles for them I confess GOD said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life Gen. 1. 20. Which may seem to take off the objected inconvenience For if so be that the Waters were to bring forth Fishes before they existed they could not lack agreeable Mansions upon their first emergency into being inasmuch as the same Element was to afford them habitation from whence they derived their production But grant that the Waters were to be productive of Fishes Yet they might not be so prima vice at the very first Or if they did then help towards producing them it could be only by yielding a rude kind of matter out of which they might be formed such as Adam's Rib was for the making of Eve And therefore though GOD said at the Twentieth Verse Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life Yet in the next Verse it is said That GOD CREATED every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly Where if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created does not denote GOD's making them out of pure nothing according to the rigid School-notion of Creation yet it signifies which is the lowest sense of the word that he made them ex materia prorsus inhabili out of matter of it self till the Creator chang'd and disposed it altogether unfit for such an use So that albeit the Waters brought forth Fishes yet they did not do it by any vis plastica formative power of their own solely but so far as they afforded general and naturally inept Materials for their composition And in some sense the Waters we know have brought forth Fishes ever since That is by cherishing their Spermata or Spawn committed to them For they receiving those young and tender rudiments of life upon their first ejection or exclusion into their liquid Wombs do nurse up the
or Humane Wisdom is interessed in the Affair That the Clouds were made that is and also are managed by a GOD whose Infinite Wisdom indu'd them with that Nature and placed them in that Order and put them in that capacity of serving us as they do So incomparably that is as no wit of Man can mend their Method For let the skilfullest I say chuse at what rate he would have his Grounds to be watered and then see if the Clouds commonly come not up to his Rules and exceed them too in what is fit to be done First We may be sure he would appoint the best kind of Water to be used And what Water so fit for all sorts of Plants as that which descends from the Clouds above For considering how it is raised by the exhalative influence of the Sun it can have nothing of saltness acrimony or deadness in it nor yet of starving thinness nor coldness neither but must be as light and unctuous and spirituous as that Element when simple can well be and by vertue of its sutable qualities and consistency be most proper for invigorating the Seminals of all things And then being drawn up from all parts of the Earth almost as simple as it seems to be there must needs be very great mixture in it I mean though it be all Water yet it must be a Compound of all Waters as it were as being an extract of all sorts of moisture that the Earth affords in its several Regions Whence it follows that all sorts of Plants must find something in it it being originally in part derived perhaps from the Countries in which they grow highly agreeable to themselves as consisting of Particles fit to enter them and easie to be turned into their substance Which being suckt up by them and drained by exquisite percolation through their fine digestive Pores immediately becomes Sap which is the Plantal Chyle or Blood for their nourishment and accretion Secondly Without question he would have these Waterings seasonably performed And here the Clouds are most kind to Vegetables again and by a regular method answer their necessities For they yield both former and latter Rains Such as may cherish them while they are young and make them grow and strengthen them as they grow and carry them on to perfection Whereas if all these Rains should fall at first the tender Springals would come to nothing as being surfeited with too much moisture and the principle of their Life irrecoverably chill'd if not extinguisht And if all should pour down upon them at last the Showres would be to no purpose For coming too late they would be in vain especially as to all Frugiferous things which being shrunk and stunted with immoderate exiccation would be unable to yield their kindly Products Thirdly We need not doubt but he would have his Grounds watered in a gentle manner And this I may say the Clouds do unimitably Sometimes with dewy Mists sometimes with greater sometimes with lesser commonly with soft and moderate Showres Whereas should they discharge themselves in extravagant quantities they would wash up the weaker and beat down the stronger Plants and by their too free and impetuous Defluxions be extreamly injurious if not fatal to both And can we think that what we have noted already should be done by meer accident That the Regions above which need them not but are rather clogged and cumbred with them should draw up such plenty of Waters for us who cannot possibly subsist without them and then send them down again of so elaborate a nature at so seasonable times and in so sutable measures and all by casual Oeconomy and the conduct of blind and incertain Chance Fourthly We may ground upon it that he would have these Waterings to be constant Not only for two or three Months or some few years but so long as he lives at least to name no longer period Nor are the Clouds deficient in this circumstance neither For as they have watered the Earth through all ages past so they will do the same indefatigably for the future even till the final Consummation of all things And though no one Sett of Clouds can ever be fixed or permanent they being perpetually flitting and volant yet as some fly from us others arise and so from new successions of them we have supplys of fresh Rain And therefore albeit they are passant things they leave very good and lasting effects of their transient fugitive presence with us And here the hand of Providence is visible again For put case that things by a fortuitous hit had fallen luckily at first into that convenient posture for Rain in which now they stand which would be most surprising to think yet that then they should persist of themselves so long and steddily and inalterably in the same is not to be imagined No where the Wheel of Order runs on in so even and withal in so laudable and holding a Course 't is a plain case that its Motions were derived from the impulse of Heaven and are maintained by the help of a Divine Influence or Providential Direction and Concurrence Fifthly We may reasonably conclude that he would appoint things to be watered intermittingly Lest too much driness together should injure them on the one side or too much moisture prejudice or bane them on the other Nor are the Clouds faulty in this piece of service but perform it as it were with a great deal of care and seeming Officiousness For when they have poured out their kindness liberally on the Earth they usually stop up their Bottles again and by suspending their effusions promote its fruitfulness as well as by sending them down upon it For as Rains that are new and fresh from above are most nourishing to Vegetables so their intermissive descents make them to be more nutritive still For then having drunk up and digested those that are past they become more receptive of them that succeed And so sucking in what is fit for their aliment with the more greediness they disperse and concoct it with the more ease and speed And truly in the alternate vicissitudes of wet and dry weather there is something at times most remarkably Providential For when we have had sore and tedious Rains for that very reason they should hold and increase because Nature is prepared and inabled thereunto by abundance of Vapours And when we have had a long and excessive drought for the same reason it should continue because Nature is sitted to carry it on the parched ground affording fewer Exhalations and there being a scarcity of matter out of which Rains should be made Yet as experience proves it happens not thus but on the contrary For when Nature's Disposition in the case does sensibly stand one way she is turned about and as it were against her seeming and set Inclinations led into another Which whispers and suggests to the thinking Man that she is certainly directed by an hand from above and in these