as Moses the Servant of God tells us in a stile suitable to the Grandeur of the Subject that the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters And the Great Creator by an Almighty Fiat commanded Dry Land and all things to be and accordingly Dry Land and all things were It is not then by the Principles of the simple Elements or of meer motion and gravity that the works of Nature in the state they are now in do perform their several Offices and Operations for we may observe that those Powers are in many things restrain'd without altering the essential properties of natural Bodies or hindering the ordinary exercise of them in any thing that is consistent with the order and welfare of the Universe It is then the Constitution they received at their first Creation the Figure Proportion Scite and Position of their parts in Mixion which Philosophers have call'd the Substantial Form that is the main Principle whereby they act and preserve themselves in the order and state they are in which if dissolved and Nature let loose to itself the Elements would certainly return to their antient state and by their primary and natural principle of Gravity involve all things again into confusion Whatever might be the immediate cause of this the Will of the Creator must be the chief Director Since the Creation the World has but had one sad instance of this and by vertue of a Divine Promise is to have no more before its final Dissolution And this happened in the Days of Noah when for the Sins of Mankind the World was overwhelmed by a Flood and the Waters mounted Fifteen Cubits high over the tops of the highest Mountains which how it may be done by Natural Causes without any Miracle is that which now I undertake to explain In order to this It will not be amiss to observe the external Face and Figure of the World The Terraqueous Globe then which we inhabit though it be round yet it is not of a smooth equal and united Surface but there are in it many and great Depressions and Cavities vast and spacious Chasms that lie betwixt the highest swelling of the Ocean and the tops of the Mountains as there is between one Mountain and another and these vast Chasms are the Appartment of the lower Region of the Air which is that strong Barrier though but a thin and transparent Partition Wall that hinders the tumid Ocean from falling down according to its natural principle of Gravity and overflowing the lower Grounds and by so doing bringing Ruin and Desolation upon a great part of the habitable Earth For we are to take notice that the Ocean in its highest swelling rises to as great a height as the tops of the highest Mountains And if this could not be demonstrated by Experience and Observation as it can the following Proof is sufficient to evince the truth of it Parts of Water being imbibed by the Earth as they are forced into its Pores by succeeding Parts that descend from higher Places in the Ocean are in the same manner as the blood does pass through the Flesh and Bodies of Animals percolated through the Body and Substance of the Earth where leaving their saline Particles to impregnate the ground with fertility and vegitation the vapid and simple Lymph is forced into small and capillary Veins by which it is conveyed into larger Vessels or subterranean Pipes and Conduits and from them is discharged into more capacious and hidden Rills as into some Vena Porta or Cava out of which qua data porta ruit at the first open Passage it meets with it gushes out in Springs where being in the open Air and in the Region of another Element to which it must yield it falls downward and by way of circulation returns back to the Ocean from whence it came This as it plainly discovers the Origin of Fountains and Rivers which hath hitherto puzell'd the most ingenious and industrious Enquirers so it does in a manner demonstrate that the swelling of the Ocean rises higher or at least as high as the tops of the highest Mountains where Springs of Water are found and Vegetables grow The Use I make of what has been said is to shew that the Elements those simple Bodies of Nature maintain their several Posts in the Universe by the different form and figure of the simulary Particles of which they are constituted as must needs appear to us when we consider the difficulty there is and violence that must be used to sink a Body of Air out of its natural place into the Water or to make a Body of Water mount into the Air for by no means can they be made to incorporate and mix together whilst they subsist in intire Bodies To effect this they must be attenuated and taken in pieces It is by this Principle then and not that of Natural Gravity that the lower Region of the Air maintains its post and becomes a Barrier to keep the Ocean from falling down upon those Parts of the Earth that are lower than it self and that it performs this with so much vigour that when it is attack'd by any powerful Neighbour born down and comprest beyond the natural scite and position of its parts it will regain its ground with such a suddain and forcible Jerk of Reciprocation that hardly does the Explosion of Gun-powder exceed it as may be experimented by shooting in a Wind-Gun or that if it be forced by any irresistible Impulse to quit it's Place it forces the hardest and most solid Bodies to give way and make room for it sad Instances of this may be seen when by Hurricanes Tempests and violent Concussions of the Air Trees are blown up by the Roots Houses laid prostrate and sometimes large Pieces of Ground transplaced to make Way for it But when by the direction of the Supream Being and the Influence of instrumental and secondary Causes the Air does pass from its close Order of Nature opens rank and file and sends off detachments of small Bodies and Particles at the same time when the Ocean being in the same manner affected the Fountain of the great Deep is broken up and Mother Thetis opening her Breasts sweats out her purer Exhalations These small Particles of Air enter into the evacuated Spaces of the Water as the Effluvia of the Water possess themselves of the Interstices of the Air so deserted and these two being Strangers new Comers and at first no very good Neighbours co-operating with the other causes mutually force more Particles to follow the same Course they have done so that by a successive and continued Transmigration of Colonies the Two Elements are blended and incorporated together and in a manner united into one Body the Air becoming a thinner Water as the Water doth a thicker Air both improper for the nourishing and preserving the Life of the Animals that live in those Elements in the state they are now inâ— This Rarefaction and Condensation is indeed a
lay down as a Principle sufficient to overthrow all the Author's Hypothesis this plain Proposition which being in it self so evident as not to need demonstration might be demanded as a Postulate and will be readily granted by all knowing Men viz. That all Bodies which tend to a Central Point as their place of rest must needs cast themselves into a Circular or Orbicular Figure And the Reason is plain and obvious because no natural Body in motion can stop till it comes at the place of Rest or as near it as possibly it can for the interposition of other Bodies that have their right to be before it Now since in a Circle or Orb all the points of the Circumference are equally distant from the Center Bodies which rest upon and are gathered about the Center must needs cast themselves into a round to be as near the place of rest as possibly they can From this true Position two undeniable Corollaries do result First That there can be no Vacuum or Place in the World altogether empty of some Body for Bodies tending towards a place of Rest must croud and touch one another contiguously for if any void Space should be betwixt them the succeeding Body would not be so near his Place as otherwise it might which is contrary to the Position laid down And then next that no Natural Body can shift or remove its place but that in exchange another must immediately possess it else there must needs be a Void in the Universe contrary to the Principle of Nature Not but that there are small and imperceptible Interstices more or less in all Bodies occasioned by the sight and position of the variously figured Particles of which they are constituted these being absolutely necessary for the motions changes and alterations of Nature as Generation and Corruption Growth Vegetation Rarefaction and Condensation Compression Expansion and the like which cannot be performed without them but that there should be any considerable Space wholly void and destitute of some body is inconsistent with the order and oeconomy of the World the being of Matter and the Idea of its Creator And thus the debate of Philosophers about the being or not being of a Vacuum may be easily reconciled and both may be in the right and both may be in the wrong according to the different Sense they spake in Now since Gravity is that Principle which gives natural Bodies their tendency towards the Center and yet seems not essential to the pure and abstract notion of matter of which they consist it would be worth the while to find out what Gravity truly is To guide us therefore into this Enquiry we are to conceive that the great Abyss of Matter which made the Chaos was no more but a Mass and Croud or aggregate of infinite Numbers of Atoms jumbled together in that vast Expanse without any property or quality but that of shape and figure according to the Opinion of the Ancient and Modern Corpuscularian Philosophers And that there being great variety amongst those indivisible Atoms as to their shape and figure some Globular some Angular and those of many different kinds whilst reeling in the dark and encountering one another fortuitously too if Naturalists be in the right according as the several Figures were fitted for union and coalition they combined and incorporated one with another some into a more close and compact some into a more lax and fluid concretion and divided themselves into several distinct and homogeneous Bodies Some of these Bodies then that consisted of more Atoms and parts of Matter closely compacted together and therefore taking up a less space since the bounds of the Expanse were not to be enlarged nor contracted but all filled did as they must needs do possess the middle part or center leaving the rest of the Expanse to be filled with the other Homogeneous Bodies according to the texture of the several constituent Particles which was either more close or loose as their Figures did suffer them to unite so that the Bodies that were of the most lax and open Concretion possest themselves of the Place most remote from the middle which is the circumference and the utmost limit of the Sphere or Vortex and the others in order filled up the intermedial Spaces betwixt the Center and that These distinct and homogeneous Bodies are those which are called the first perceptible Elements of Nature and by reason of the quantity of Matter they contain their solidity or fluidity challenging the Places that they possess in the Universe by what cause soever they are removed or displaced they naturally tend to the same again because there is no other Place for them all being full of the other Bodies which will not make room for them nor incorporate with them And this is that which is called Gravity and Levity according to which the Elementary Bodies possest themselves of their several Places in the Universe though indeed all affect to be as near the Center or Point of rest as they can from which they stir not unless the danger of a Vacuum or some other external Force or Violence compel them so to do According to this Philosophy if no other Power but that of Nature were concerned in framing of the Universe those great Bodies which we call the Elements though indeed they be not purely so must needs have subsisted in this Order First The Earth being the most weighty as consisting of most solid and compact Matter must have been as now it is the Basis and Foundation of all then the Water as coming nearest to it in consistence must have succeeded in place after it the Air then the Ether and last of all the Fire if any such Element exist separate from the rest to limit and circumscribe this World And since all these being in their proper Places according to the Laws of Nature and Gravity they must have rested and continued in that posture no Earth then could have been seen being covered and surrounded by the Orb of Water and the Superior Orbs being invisible to the Eye nothing must have appeared to the sight but a vast and spacious Globe of Water Now since we find it is otherwise and that the Earth is to be seen as well as the Water distinct and separate from it and both replenished with vast numbers of Beings animate and inanimate all harmoniously conspiring to the order and beauty of the whole Universe and to the mutual uses and advantages of each other which is far above the power of meer Matter to effect it must needs convince the most obstinate and prejudiced Materialist or Atheist that matter and nature are not eternal all-sufficient and independent but that they must derive their being and vertue from a Supream and Omnipotent Cause which hath brought Nature out of the Chaos of Matter and put all things into the decent state and order that we see them in and that this was so done in the beginning of Time when
them as well as where he has placed it under the North and South Pole for having reckon'd up the various Opinions of Authors concerning Paradise whether it was a delightful Garden a local Paradise or a Paradisaical State of the whole Earth He gives it for the later and so flatly contradicts Moses who tells us that God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden He cannot Excuse this by saying that Moses spake Figuratively which some Good and Learned Men have thought and with Reverence and Humility endeavour'd to Explain the Mystery since he himseâ—â—â—peaks Litterally and in the same Sense That he owns Moses to have spoken because in his comparing both together he makes the Pleasures and Advantages of Paradise to consist in Terrestrial Felicities Now when Moses says that Paradise was a delightful Garden Eastward in the World and Dr. Burnet on the contrary Affirms that all the World East West South and North was a delightful Garden and Paradise there can be no Figure in the case unless to tell a Lye be to make a Figure but whether Moses might have spoke Litteraly or Figuratively the horrid and impious Consequences which attend our Authors Opinion are still the same for if there was no other Paradise but a Paradisaical State of the Earth and that this continued till the days of Noah when the Flood happened by the Disruption of the Earth which quite altered the State and Figure of it then it necessarily follows that it was Noah and not Adam who lost Paradise Now if Adam did not lose Paradise no more did not he Sin for the Punishment and the Sin being relata quae mutuo se ponunt tollunt if the one be False the other is so too so that if Adam did not lose Paradise which was the Punishment neither did he commit Original Sin which was the Cause of it Again if Adam did not commit Original Sin he did not forfeit the Primitive Innocence and Integrity of his Nature and seeing all the Essential Properties of the Human Nature whereof Innocence then was One were by ordinary Generation transmitted from the first Man to his Posterity the Off-spring of Adam must have continued Innocent and no Sin have been in the World So that there could have been no such thing as that all Flesh had corrupted their ways No such thing as the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men lay with them and begat Gyants there could be no such thing as Nimrods and Mighty Hunters who usurped the Rights of others and invaded the Possessions oâ—â—â—ir Neighbours or if that was done it must be done 〈◊〉 Righteous Men and with a Good-Conscience a Doctrine that cannot be much disliked by many of the Saints of our Age. There could be then no necessity of a Preacher of Righteousness since all Men were innocent and therefore if Noah would needs be so Officious a Phanatic as to Preach without a Call and disturb honest Men he was rightly served for his Pains and lost Paradise for his Labour Since then the Religion of the greatest and most Civilized Part of the World depends upon the Belief of Adam's Committing Sin and therefore losing Paradise and that of Christians more particularly upon the Belief of the Disobedience and Transgression of the First Adam and the perfect Obedience and compleat Satisfaction of the Second and all this be no more than Fiction and Fable as it needs must be if the Doctrine of our Author be true Then was Moses a meer Gypsy the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles Juglers and Deceivers and I tremble to say it the Son of God Christ Jesus the Saviour of the World an Arrant Impostor and thus the Author has brought his Eggs to a fair Market for here we have all Religion Virtue and Morality pelted out of the World with one rotten Egg thrown by a Left-handed Philosopher in Holy Orders These are some material Heads which I think may be enlarged into a compleat Answer to the Theory of the Earth though at the same time something more may be said in Answer to the Author for Seria mixta jocis does do well and if an Author with so much Vanity and Ostentation insult the greatest Truth and batter the strongest Bulwarks with no better Ammunition than full blown Bladders besides a serious Confutation of Reason and Argument he ought to have a little of the Jocose and a Lash or Two of Raillery and Merriment It is a good while since I laid this Keel with design thereupon to have built an Ark that might have saved the Reputation of Mosâ—â— â—â—d Holy Scripture from the Deluge of Vain and Atheisticaâ—â—â—ilosophy Materials I had ready and should have finisheâ—â—â—e Work before Dr. Beaumont's Answer came to light but being unable to go on with it my self because of want of Sight and Friends notwithstanding all the Importunities I could use refusing to assist me with an Amanuensis as thinking that Charge too great a Venture to be committed to the Care and Management of a blind Undertaker from whose Labours they could expect no great Success I have been forced to desist and at length to procure a Friend to write for me this short Specimen for their Satisfaction So true it is that Contempt is the Deformed Shadow that constantly attends an Ill-shap'd Fortune Magnum Paupertas Opprobrium Iubet Quicquid facere pati The Scriptures tell us Of a Poor Man that by his Counsel once saved a City but that no Body thanked this Poor Man for it If he had lived and done the same in this Age it's odds but he had met with the same Entertainment Holy David in 〈◊〉 â—â—â—tress became the By-word of Fools and the Song of the Drunkard and no wonder since a far greater than David our Saviour found the like Usage and complains of it No Man then that would follow him and bear his Cross ought to murmur and repine If therefore any other more Skilful and Fortunate Artist than my self as there are a great many shall with the Help of these Materials rear the Fabrick and finish the Work I intended to have done I shall not envy but applaud his good Success only I think it but reasonable That the poor Labourer who hath lugg'd in the Materials should be thought worthy of his Hire And that if he have not the Praise of having done the Work he ought at least to have the Acknowledgment that it was not done without him FINIS