Scripture Truth which we should be so zealous to retain and not suffer our selves to be delighted with any thing contrary to it For as S. Paul saith to the Thessalonians If we like not to retain the truth God shall give us up to strong delusions that we should believe a lye And truly we well deserve to be given up to any Delusions seeing we are so little concerned in all matters of Religion whether Papist or Atheist Turk or Jew we are very indifferent in all And certainly this Man hath not a little gratified both Papists and Atheists the Papists by his strange and forced Interpretations of Scripture making it as they Blasphemously call it a Nose of Wax to be shaped and fitted not only to their vain Superstitions but even to this Mans ridiculous Inventions The Atheists by making the Word of God whereon the truth of our Salvation depends so uncertain and questionable that no Man can find any assurance to depend upon seeing the first Principles of it so variously interpreted by this Man and from those Principles a Fabrick raised of a New World so different from that which all Believers from the beginning to this day have asserted Wherefore I shall now address my self unto the learned Men of the Universities and desire to know what Lethargy hath possessed them all that not one of them appears in Writing to confute the Fables of this Man For I have diligently enquired and cannot hear of any one yet come forth in Print If they answer me that they are so vain and extravagant in themselves that they need no other Confutation Iconsent unto them that it is true But if they prevail so far in the World as to get Reception and Applause the next step may be for ought I know to be approved and believed This hath engaged me tho now in the Eighty Second Year of my Age to put some stop to this Current and to awaken some younger abler and fitter Person to undertake this Man and encounter him in every point which I am not able to perform my Memory being much decayed my sight also being gone one Eye quite the other very dim so that I can neither write my self nor easily read the writing of another Yet I was resolved to shew my endeavour by this short Essay hoping it may raise the Spirit of some younger as I said and learned Person to set upon this business And lastly I shall address my self unto the Governours of our Church who sit at the Helm humbly and earnestly beseeching them to have a watchful Eye at least over this Person what he sets forth if they think it not fit to question him for what he hath published already for in this Book he sufficiently declares his intention of Publishing another part of such like discourse as this And you see by this how he wrests and forces the Scripture from its own sense unto his purpose beyond the Manicheans or Marcionites and how boldly he sets himself to maintain a new Hypothesis so contrary to all the World that were before him Heathens Jews or Christians And truly it may be well doubted whether he hath any great reverence or value for the Scriptures tho he makes use of them to gain some credit or at least toleration for his vain Inventions For I pray you look into him Page 270. at the lower end where speaking of America how it was peopled he there declares his Opinion That it is more probable that when Adam was removed from America into our Continent some of his Posterity was left behind and in the Deluge were saved some other way different from Noah tho not mentioned in the Scripture and after that encreased and multiplied to People that Nation And saith That tho he believes all Mankind proceeded at first from Adam Yet he is not bound to believe that all the People now in the whole World proceeded from Noah and his Generation and that he thinks it not a breach of any Article of Faith not to believe it I would ask this Man whether it be an Article of his Faith to believe the Scriptures and if it be I am sure he is bound to believe that all Mankind now in the whole World proceeded from Noah For it is repeated Genesis c. 7. four or five times over that all Mankind except Noah and his Family were destroyed in the Flood And 't is impossible he should pretend ignorance of this for he mentions several passages in that Chapter From hence 't is plain this Man hath the confidence to set himself against the whole World and to make good his own vain Fancy will oppose them all tho they bring Scripture never so plain and easie to be understood And when he hath thus abused and called all Men living Dunces he concludes his Book desiring Peace and Love with them all Thus I have shewed my endeavour desiring all my defects herein may be excused by my great Age and many Imperfections I Think it fit to inform the Reader That after my first reading of this Mans Theory I wrote unto Mr. Kettil by the Man that Printed it to enquire what kind of Person the Author was who it seems informed him of what I had written and he thereupon writes a Letter himself unto me concerning his Theory By which I understood how to address a Letter unto him and so began some correspondency with him in Letters hoping that I might thereby reclaim him from his Errours but found him so stiff and pertinacious in them that I was soon out of all hopes to do any good And in this our correspondency by Letters several passages came from him which are here and there mentioned in the following Discourse which the Reader may wonder at finding nothing of them in his Theory The following Discourse is divided into Three Sections I. Contains the Exposition of several Texts of Scripture mentioned in his Theory Page I. II. Contains the Narration of the Deluge p. 53. III. Contains the Fabrick of his New World p. 154. SECTION I. CONTAINS The Exposition of several Texts of Scripture mentioned in his Theory I. I Told you in the Preface that I had not meddled with this mans Theory unless he had given me great offence to see the Sacred Scriptures so abused as to be made props to support such a rotten tottering building as his Theory And therefore I think it fit before I enter upon the discourse of that to shew you wherein he hath abused the Scriptures by giving you a right interpretation of them lest you seeing with what confidence he cites them may from thence suppose they bear such a sense as he puts upon them and so inconsiderately pass over his Theory as a well grounded Truth II. He makes use of Moses sometimes but chiefly St. Peter and tells us often what they say in their Philosophy as if he did them a great honour in giving them that Title but truly they may well scorn the Title as too mean
IMPRIMATUR July 8. 1685. C. Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã sacris Domesticis SOME ANIMADVERSIONS Upon a BOOK Intituled THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BY THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD HERBERT Lord Bishop of HEREFORD JOB xi 12. Vain man would be wise tho man be born like a wild asses colt LONDON Printed for Charles Harper at the Flowerdeluce over against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1685. THE PREFACE MANY years ago I chanced to be in a Stationer's-shop where lay a Pamphlet with a Picture in the Front reprefenting the Moon on one hand in the top and below on the other hand a Chariot with a Gentleman feated in it and three pair of flying Gaunces so he called them that is Geese fastened to this Chariot and taking their straight course up towards the Moon whither this Gentleman was hastening how he finished his course and what became of him I staid not to look There is a Gentleman of late come into the World which I have not seen but by many circumstances conclude it to be the same man and to assure you that he hath been there he tells you of a Deluge and wonderful Fraction that hath been in that World much like the same which he hath represented unto us of our World with feveral other such rare Moonish Inventions set forth unto us in a Book called The Theory of the Earth which he daily contemplated during his remain there being frequently wheeled round about it And by such violent circumferences daily made his head became so giddy as he is not well recovered thereof since his return from thence But I fear this Gentlemans displeasure otherwise I would tell you more of him For I remember towards the end of his Book he desires that if any man undertook to answer it he should forbear extravagant excursions and stick close and seriously to the business I may ask him then why he would trouble the World with more extravagant fancies in his Book and talk to us Christians of a certain Chaos and Fluid Mass and several Particles moving therein and how from thence an Earth was framed in a perfect Spherical Form with a Sea contained in the bowels of it and how that this Earth was so fertile as to produce all the several Animals in the World not only Worms Snails Snakes and Adders but Horses Bears and Lions Ravens Swans and Eagles all grew out of this fat and fertile Mass. And here you might have seen their heads first peeping out of the Earth and then their bodies legs tails and all thus frisking forth and taking their carreer And so Fowls coming forth by degrees at last to grow compleat take wing and fly abroad in the Air. And then he tells us how this whole frame of Earth like a great Pitcher heated sixteen hundred years together by the Sun at length the Water in its bowels sent forth such violent fumes and vapours as burst the whole frame of it to pieces and so boiling up overflowed all the Earth with the several Creatures in it May I not now conclude for certain that this man hath been in the Moon where his head hath been intoxicated with circulating the Earth and is now come down to us with these rare Inventions which he very gravely calls Philosophical Speculations and Rational Deductions whereby he hath framed this admirable Theory which he hath pulbished as a new light come into the World to enlighten the understandings of all men This is just as Seneca saith Sobrie insanire per gravitatem furere a grave and sober madness And these his wild Inventions he would have pass in the World as I said for Philosophical Truths and says If a Prince should complain of the poorness of his Exchequer and the scarcity of money in his Kingdom would he be angry with his Merchants if they brought him home a Cargo of good Bullion or a Mass of Gold out of a forein Country and give this reason for it he would have no new Silver neither should any be current in his Dominions but what had his own stamp and image upon it So we complaining of the great ignorance of mankind should be no less fantastical if we should refuse any new Hypothesis or Theory proposed unto us To this I Answer first That setting aside the Divine Truths which we have by Revelation from God in all other matters we complain of our want of knowledg because we cannot acquire in this Life the sure knowledg of any thing with all our contemplation study and enquiry and the more we study the more we come to know our own ignorance as that Wise man said Hoc unum scio me nihil scire I know this one thing that I know nothing And therefore the Preacher saith Eccles. 1. 18. He that increaseth knowledg increaseth sorrow to find himself so ignorant notwithstanding all his study and endeavours for the gaining thereof Secondly I Answer That I believe no King would be so foolish as to suffer that little Gold he had in his Kingdom to be transported out and exchanged for a great deal of brass or leather Coin So we will be very wary how we suffer our selves to be deluded and cheated of our Scripture-Truths and receive this mans fabulous Inventions And I pray you observe in his Discourse the Method he uses In one Chapter he confidently sayes such a thing is an old gross Errour or that in this the Antients were much mistaken but proves neither and sometimes cites a Scripture nothing to his purpose And then in some following Chapter tells you with all confidence he has proved that in a former Chapter and thus goes on deducing one Errour from another Yet this rare Man notwithstanding all his confidence seems somewhat to doubt whether this his Theory would have a current passage in the World and therefore to take men off from any Opposition to it in his Preface doth brow-beat them calling them Narrow-spirited Men that do not approve his wide wild and extravagant fancies Some he calls giddy and hasty Spirits because they will not spend time to consider and weigh his light and trivial Inventions Some he calls such dul-spirited Men that they would not receive his Theory tho an Angel from Heaven had delivered it unto them And I confess my self one of those dull Souls which should have rejected it tho an Angel from Heaven had brought it and S. Paul to the Galatians would have been my sufficient Warrant it being so contrary to Scripture in several parts He tells us also of some that think themselves witty in calling his Book a Philosophick Romance I wonder much he should be displeased at this Title for certainly it is the most honorable Title that could be affixed to it And there is great reason to suspect that this Gentleman fearing some meaner and more reproachful Title might be given it to prevent the worst found out this himself for how could any man else who had not
seen his Book give so proper a Title unto it supposing that before it was published with this Preface he had not imparted it to any but some private Friend And if he would take my poor judgment in this matter I conceive he had done far better if he had published it under the Title of a Romance only for several Persons would then have read it as a pretty invention to pass away their idle time and perchance have taken much delight in it and I might have done the same my self But in reading his Book as soon as I found him to put a serious countenance on the business and that he would have us receive his vain Fopperies as Real Rational and Philosophical Truths I began to Stomach at them and farther when I found he had put the stamp and face of Scripture Truth upon such vain fancies I more and more detested them just as if I had seen a Camel or some such foreign Beast with a Mans Head and Face placed upon his Neck which I look'd upon as a hideous Monster and abhorred it whereas ifthe Camel had had his own proper Head I should have look'd upon it a while as a Novelty with pleasure considering the rare and extraordinary shape thereof This I confess hath much exasperated my mind against his Theory seeing him so strangely abuse and force the sacred Scriptures from their natural sense to make them carry some colour for his Fopperies Yet I must acknowledge there are some very serious and solid discourses in it here and there where he hath a good ground for them And he seems to be a Man of very good natural parts and to have studied and read very much So that considering all he hath put me to a great stand what to make of him and hath given me cause to suspect that he hath some very ill Principles contrary to the Religion we profess and hath cloaked them under his Theory to see how the World will first pass this and if well then to venture at something beyond it For it is impossible that a Man of his Parts and Reading should so mistake and misinterpret those places of Scripture which he brings to maintain his Theory And I think he gives me sufficient ground to affirm that either his Brain is crackt with over-love of his own Invention or his Heart is rotten with some evil design For I have heard of certain Men whose Brains have been disturbed with some one particular thing tho in all other matters very sober and Rational 'T is plain this Man hath taken a wonderful deal of pains for some years at least in perusing several Authors to find out what was in them to countenance his Theory which he so much adores in his Heart And that it might carry some colour of Religion also pretends to believe the Scriptures and so applies several parts of it to his Theory which have not the least ground for it Or else blinded and in some measure distracted with the Love of his own Invention fancies he sees in them much more than really there is as Children frighted with Hobgoblings fancy they see upon a Wall Figures of Devils with Horns and Feet and the like So Love which is said to be stronger than any other Passions may have the like effect and make him see that in Scripture which no Man else can perceive Sometimes he savours much of the Heathen Humour For you may observe he is very much taken and enlarges himself with great Delight when he speaks of their Golden Age Elysium Fields the Gardens of Hesperides the Youth of Greece sailing with Jason to gain the Golden Fleece their fabulous Fiction of a Chaos and all things produced by that Otherwhiles he seems to be a kind of Deist acknowledging God as the supream Origin of all But after his first Creation he takes all out of his hands and would have Nature only to act by a constant course in all things conteined in this sublunary World And what he understands by this Nature is hard to say For tho Page 289. he seems to give a tolerable Definition of it yet I pray you observe him Page 183. where he speaks of the several Animals in the World and saith It is below the Dignity of the Superiour Agent to act in their production and would have this to be the business of Nature as if this Nature were some distinct person subsisting and acting by it self and could do any thing of it self without the concurrence of the Supream Agent For if the Supream Agent doth concur then it is not below his Dignity to Act in their production But the Scripture saith A sparrow doth not fall from the house top without our heavenly father and so doubtless a Sparrow cannot arise from an Egg without our Heavenly Father particularly acting therein This savours very much of the Epicurean Opinion who thought it below the Dignity of the Godhead to trouble itself with the minute Affairs of this lower world But Believers know it is no trouble at all to God to act in infinite things more than in one Less trouble than it is to the Sun to shine upon every Grass in the Fields and every Sand of the Sea And therefore whatever this Man is whether a half or a whole and true Believer Yet he does so much magnifie Nature and her Actings in all this material World as he gives just cause of suspicion that he hath made her a kind of joynt Deess with God in the Affairs thereof Just as the Papists have made the Blessed Virgin to have a joynt Power with Christ in conferring Graces upon Men and so by degrees Men are come to that pass as to make Ten Prayers unto her for one they make unto God Yet if you ask the Papists whether the Blessed Virgin be a Goddess or a Creature they will answer a Creature but in their Actings make her a Goddess And so this Man gives a tolerable Definition of Nature but talks so much of her Actings that God is very near justled out of all And now who can chuse but admire to find not only shallow and giddy Persons but many serious knowing Men as I am very credibly informed who have the free use of the Scripture which teaches them so plainly the Creation and Deluge of the World yet receive and commend this Man's vain Inventions so contrary unto them which I hope to make evidently appear And I cannot attribute this to any thing else but to their being so intent on their worldly Affairs or Pleasures that they look very little at all into the Scriptures much less remember what is their contained It is a sad and lamentable condition of our depraved Nature that we are so apt to embrace any Errour more than Truth and that like Children we are so tossed to and fro with any wind of Doctrine and catch at Novelties ever so erroneous And I know not what can be proposed more erroneous and contrary to the