he intend aright whether he call it in or by both must signisie the same thing And therefore his cavilling at our English Translation is very frivolous and captious without ground And thus St. Peter and his Philosophy as he terms it plainly contradicts him and is a pregnant place uttered by Providence if I may say so to confute his new invention And Moses in his Philosophy plainly contradicts him also Whereby it is evident that the Antediluvian Earth and the present Earth are one and the same for that had a Sea covering the Earth as this hath Neither Moses nor St. Peter make any such Philosophical distinction as he would prove from them but clean contrary XVIII And that this present Earth is as subject to a Deluge as the former is evident by that passage in Gen. 9. 8. where God promised to Noah that he would never destroy this World again by Water and confirmed the same also by a Sign All which had been very superfluous and vain if the present Earth were so shaped and fashioned as it could not by destroyed by Water Noah might well have smiled at Gods assurance that it should not be when saith this man it could not be there is not Water enough in the whole Universe as he affirms to cover it again Wherefore as by Gods promise a clear possibility is implied that it may be so by Gods promise also we are assured that it shall not be Unto this Scripture you may add that formerly mentioned Psal. 104. 9. Thou hast set a bound that they the Waters may not pass over and turn again to cover the Earth And that most remarkable passage Jer. 5. 22. Fear ye not me saith the Lord Will ye not tremble at my Presence which have placed the Sand for the Bound of the Sea by a perpetual Decree that it cannot pass it and tho the Waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail tho they roar yet can they not pass over it Where God so plainly expresseth a possibility of the Seas overflowing the Earth again or else we must make Gods threatening very vain And that this Command of God for the restraining of the Sea was not given after the Flood tho it continued then also but before the Flood even at the very first Creation appears Prov. 8. 29. where it is said God gave to the Sea his Decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when he appointed the foundations of the earth I shall speak more of this passage by and by when I come to enlarge more on this Chapter XIX I have shewed you before how that St. Peter declares that both the Deluge was and the Conflagration will be by the Word of God not from any Natural Cause But our Theorist will needs ascribe all unto Natural Causes and the disposition which was in the Earth and Heavens for the Flood So likewise he will have a disposition and frame in them for the Conflagration We shall be very glad to learn from our Theorist what that frame or disposition is wherein it consists At the Deluge he hath a rare knack of invention the Suns so heating the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth that just at such a nick of time the Waters and Vapours from them boiled up and burst the whole Frame of the Earth to pieces But I would fain be satisfied concerning this Fiery destruction to come and know how the Heavens and the Earth they both being of so very different constitutions should both take Fire at once I know Gods Word hath said they shall and therefore I believe it But how this shall come to pass our curiosity desires to know from his Philosophy which tells us so exactly how the Deluge came and may I hope as exactly set forth the future Conflagration and tell us the Natural Causes and Preparatory means to dispose the Heavens and the Earth unto it for I suppose he will stick to his own method of having Natural Causes for all things and will not allow God the liberty to use any extraordinary means tho upon such an extraordinary occasion as the Deluge or Conflagration Nature must act in all these and his Philosophy must find out the means whereby she acts and will discover it unto us and will also shew us how it comes to pass that in three thousand years time and upwards since the Flood we find no visible change or disposition in the Heavens or Earth to a Conflagration more now than formerly If this be too hard a task for him to tell us of the future destruction of the whole World yet methinks he should be able to declare unto us that which is past and shew us the Natural Cause of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction how those Cities came to fall on Fire and the rest of the World escape what disposition there was in that patch of ground or in the Heavens over it to send down Fire upon them XX. I will trouble him no more with Questions of this Nature at present But yet I shall desire leave to give him a short Admonition This way of Philosophising all from Natural Causes I fear will make the whole World turn Scoffers such as St. Peter met with for men supposing and expecting the World to be consumed by Natural Causes as this man would have it and seeing no visible Cause or Alteration in the Heavens or Earth in three thousand years space may conclude that in three thousand years to come there may be as little or no Change and so may ask as those Scoffers did Where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were from the beginning To conclude this matter Let me advise him to trust to Gods Word only that assuredly there will be a Conflagration of the whole World and lay aside his curious vain and endless Philosophising labour to find out the Natural Causes thereof And thus I have taken a great deal of pains more than I intended to shew the little or no ground this man hath so much to boast this second Epistle of St. Peter which first is doubtful and secondly doth so little prove that which he would have tho so frequently made use of in his Theory as if he had proved his whole design from thence Having thus dispatch'd his principal Text on which he so much depends I shall now briefly examin some other Scriptures made use of in his Theory XXI In the ninetieth page of his first Book he hath these words There remains a remarkable discourse in the Proverbs of Solomon relating to the Mosaical Abyss and not only to that but to the Origin of the Earth in general where Wisdom declares her Antiquity and Preexistence to all the Works of this Earth chap. 8. 23. c. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning ' ere the earth was When there were no deeps or Abysses I was brought forth when no fountains abounding with water
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
these Heavens nor this Earth can declare unto us the glory of God or his Handy-work for this present Earth is a strange mishapen thing full of broken Rocks and Mountains Hills and Valleys Lakes and Seas the ruines only of a former Earth which carried a smooth spherical form a beautiful and rich Soil delicately adorned with Fruitful Trees and pleasant Flowers without Seas or Lakes and in a word all over a very Paradise The Heavens also were then of a temperate Serene Air no Storms or Tempests no Scorching or Freezing Weather but pleasant Seasons throughout the year fit to breed and nourish all things which now clean contrary is filled with boistrous Winds Storms and Hurricanes Heats and Colds distempered and infectious Airs so that men are now cut off in the beginning or midst of their daies or if they fulfil the whole number of them it doth not amount to half a quarter of their former longevity This he undertakes to set forth to us in a Book entituled the Theory of the Earth Which I shall now examine and pass some brief Animadversions upon it III. The whole Discourse of this mans Theory ariseth from the great dissatisfaction he had in two things the first was concerning the common belief we have of the Deluge that the Earth was wholly overflowed and quite encompassed with so much Water all at once as to extend to the tops of the highest Mountains and fifteen Cubits over fo so we understand Moses's description of it This seems to him a thing not intelligible and consequently not credible as we shall see hereafter The second thing that troubles him is the mishapen form of our present Earth as he thinks not becoming the Omnipotent Power of God who Created all things and after every Work affirmed that it was good which no man can say of this imperfect World for it hath scarce any thing in it of form or order but lies like a confused Mass of Ruins But tho the Creation was the first thing in order yet in his Book he puts it in the second place and begins with the Deluge as most to his purpose shewing the impossibility of it according to his Scheme of Philosophy for by that we are to rule our thoughts and words in all things appertaining to the Natural World as he calls it But the plain truth is both these difficulties are but pretended to bring in his new devised fancy of making another World very different from that which Moses describes in the Creation This is his beloved Darling which he would gladly compel us to receive by shewing us first the impossibility of such a Deluge in this World as now it appears And from thence he introduces a World of his own framing and shews thereby his admirable Wit and Parts as he conceives in its composure which we shall see when we come to it At present we will follow his method and begin with the Deluge the common opinion whereof he rejects because it is not Intelligible IV. He lays down this Rule That in all things appertaining to this Natural World which consist of matter and form we must not allow of any thing that is not agreeable to the ordinary course of nature which he supposes may be conceived in a rational way As for example That two material bodies cannot penetrate the one into the other this is against the Principles of his Philosophy And therefore we ought not to allow that the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin in bringing forth our Saviour into the World And that Accidents cannot subsist without a Subject to support them this also is unintelligible and therefore we allow not the Popish Transubstantiation So likewise we reject their Purgatory because it is unintelligible how the Soul separated from the Body being a pure Spiritual Substance can suffer by material Fire and suchlike their Tenets Yet we believe the first that the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin in partu that is in bringing forth our Saviour as well as in conceiving him because we have a sufficient ground for this in Scripture both in the Prophet Isaiah and in the Gospel A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son Her Virginity is jointly affirmed both of her conceiving and bearing And therefore all the Christian Church have ever affirmed it and say according to the Creed called the Apostle's born of the Virgin Mary But we find no compelling Scripture to make us believe the Popish Tenets we mentioned If the Papists could shew us as plainly in Scripture their Transubstantiation as we can that the Virgin both conceived and bare a Son we should as readily believe the one as the other Wherefore our Rule of Belief is the Scripture and whatsoever is plainly declared there we presently submit unto whether the manner of it be intelligible or not intelligible whether it relate to the material World or the Spiritual World for I know no reason why we should make that distinction of Material and Spiritual if Gods Word plainly declares it for by reason we are more assured that Gods Word must be Truth than that any material thing can be or can not be so Who doth understand the union of Mans Material Body with his Spiritual part the Soul Where the faculties of the Soul are lodged his understanding Will and Memory and how they are distinguished How material accidents of the Body work upon the Soul and disorder sometimes the understanding sometimes the memory Nay in things wholly material How little doth man understand or can give a reason why a dry yellow Seed of Wheat should spring up in a green moist Blade and that grow into an Ear and become Wheat again Or who doth understand the various flowings and ebbings of the Sea These are things our very Senses tell us are so yet our Reason doth not at all understand how they came to be so Shall man then who understands not himself nor the mean works of God by his shallow weak Reason examine and determine the great and wonderful Works of God God forbid V. But this man perchance will say that he hath found out an explication of Scripture in this business of the Deluge which never was found before and such as may accord as well with Moses's relation as that we commonly receive To this I answer If his way of interpreting the Scripture be extravagant Romantick and ridiculous in it self not any thing becoming the gravity of Scripture and also put a sense extreamly forced and even contrary to the words as they have been understood by the whole World hitherto we have reason to reject it And now let any knowing serious Person not light and giddy Persons who are pleased with any novelty consider and weigh the Arguments he brings and the Answers herein contained and then let him judg of the whole matter wherein we will now proceed VI. His first Chapter is only by way of Introduction to bring in the rest And in his second Chapter he endeavours to shew us