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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65673	A second defence of the New theory of the earth from the exceptions of Mr. John Keill. By William Whiston, M.A. vicar of Lowestoft, Suffolk; and chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God, John Lord Bishop of Norwich	Whiston, William, 1667-1752.	1700 (1700)	Wing W1697; ESTC R220939	12,718	26

A SECOND DEFENCE OF THE New Theory of the Earth FROM THE EXCEPTIONS OF Mr. IOHN KEILL By WILLIAM WHISTON M. A. Vicar of Lowestoft Suffolk and Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God IOHN Lord Bishop of Norwich LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet 1700. A SECOND DEFENCE OF THE New Theory of the Earth c. SINCE I have resolv'd to be as short as possible in this Rejoinder and have ever determin'd with my self to avoid all Heat and Passion all Recriminations and personal Reflections which I look upon as Things unworthy of the Professors of the Peaceable and Charitable Religion of our Saviour as Immoralities in Philosophers and Crimes in Christians I shall therefore wave all things in Mr. Keill's Defence which might occasion any Reflections of that nature and endeavour only to debate the Matters in dispute between us with all the Calmness and Fairness possible And as wherever I am convinc'd by his Reasons I shall freely own it so it is but Equal that I expect the same of him upon the same Occasions Only He must give me leave to say That the Reason of my Surprize at His appearing in Publick against me was not any Special Obligations I thought him under to me but his having declar'd his Satisfaction with the principal Assertion nay the main Foundation of my Theory viz. That a Comet pass'd by the Earth at the Deluge After which Concession I could not I thought expect an Opposition in Print to my Book from him I will repeat Mr. Keill's Words at large in the beginning of his former Remarks and Appeal to the Candid Reader whether I had not some reason to be surpriz'd I cannot but acknowledge says Mr. Keill that the Author of the New Theory of the Earth has made greater Discoveries and proceeded on more Philosophical Principles than all the Theorists before him have done In his Theory there are some very strange Co-incidents which make it indeed probable That a Comet at the time of the Deluge pass'd by the Earth It is surprizing to observe the exact Correspondence between the Lunar and Solar Year upon the Supposition of a Circular Orbit in which the Earth mov'd before the Deluge It cannot but raise admiration in us when we consider that the Earth at the Time of the Deluge was in its Perihelion which would be the necessary Effect of a Comet that passed by at that time in drawing it from a Circular to an Elliptical Orbit This together with the Consideration that the Moon was exactly in such a place of its Orbit at that time as equally attracted with the Earth when the Comet pass'd by seems to be a very convincing Argument that a Comet really came very near and pass'd by the Earth on the day the Deluge began But to leave this Preface and to come to the Matters themselves in dispute between us In the First place therefore because Moses at the beginning of the Six days Creation says That Darkness was upon the face of the Deep whereas the Atmosphere of a Comet which I suppose to be the Chaos here meant is a transparent Fluid while it is such Mr. Keill argued that this transparent Atmosphere could not be the dark Abyss of Moses Now what I answer'd was That Moses did not concern himself with the ancient State of the Chaos but only with its State at the Commencing of his Creation at which time it would be a dark Abyss in the properest sense and highest degree imaginable Now all that Mr. Keill adds about this matter whether as to the light and shining of the Central Solid and his Calculations thereto relating As to the Change from a Pellucid to an Opake Fluid or as to the Restraint of the word Abyss to the Dense Fluid alone might have been omitted if he had first rightly understood and consider'd the Propositions in the New Theory where these Matters were explain'd already For certainly though the Central Solid were as luminous as the Sun it self yet to a Spectator plac'd in so thick a Mist there could no more of its Light from within than of the Sun 's from without appear Though truly the Calculations here suppose 1. the Earth when a Comet to have mov'd as near the Sun as the last whereas perhaps no other ever did so besides 2. The Heat of its own Nucleus the main Cause of its Tail which is utterly false and never imagin'd by me And 3. The Spectator at only Ten Miles distance from the Nucleus when he must have been as many Hundreds at least and so are wholly groundless and my Theory not at all concern'd in them Besides though All the Upper parts of the Atmosphere of a Comet through which we see the Fix'd Stars is Transparent yet the Lowest part next the Nucleus or Dense Body seems Opake and Dark like a very thick Mist so as to hide the Nucleus it self from our sight and cause Darkness upon the Face of the Deep For the Changes which some observe in the Nucleus of Comets are to be suppos'd not in the Solid Body but in the Cloudy Bottom of the Atmosphere which next encompasses the Nucleus And this Darkness upon the Face of the Deep might continue till the Comet was grown Cold and all the Denser part of the Atmosphere was Subsided and be greatest while those Denser parts were in a State of Coagulation and Subsiding 'T is also evident in my Book that I ascribe the Changes of the Chaos to the Operations of the Spirit of God introducing such Laws of Bodies by which the Earth would first be form'd and its Phaenomena ever after be govern'd And 't is sure no hard interpretation to include all that Fluid Region beneath the Earth's Future Surface under the term Abyss though after the Separation of the Earthy Parts and their Consolidation the Dense Fluid may most properly go by that Name And upon the Face of the Abyss there was at first Darkness and that succeeded by Light according to the exact Description of Moses and according to the Solution of the First Day 's work in the New Theory My next Answer was to Mr. Keill's Objection against the sudden Formation of the Earth in a few years time by the Laws of Mechanism For since says he the Confusions of the Comet 's Atmosphere seem to arise from the Violence of the Heat in its Perihelion as that Heat gradually decreas'd which would not be under many Hundreds or perhaps Thousands of Years the Confusions would cease also and the Subsidence and Mechanical Formation be compleated proportionably in the same time and not sooner contrary to my Theory My Answer to this was it seems by me so obscurely express'd that Mr. Keill could not apprehend my meaning Which therefore I shall endeavour to explain more distinctly thus I deny that all the Confusions of a Comet 's Atmosphere are owing to the Heat at the Perihelion and I also affirm That since Astronomers find by

Observation that upon a Comet 's return to the Solar Regions the Atmosphere does still return and is not at all settled and formed like a Planet I must have contradicted that Observation if I had ascrib'd the Formation of our Earth to such a gradual and tedious Operation In short My Chaos was a Comet 's Atmosphere Such an Atmosphere does not Subside in the Period about the Sun and consequently Mr. Keill who makes that an Objection against me is mistaken and the Formation of the Earth is to be ascribed to other Causes and perfected by other Measures than he here imagines and so for ought that appears by those assign'd in my Theory I had said Vind. p. 4 5. that All the same Laws Properties and Operations of Bodies which we find establish'd here on Earth do not so Universally obtain in the Atmosphere of Comets Which Assertion Mr. Keill is surpriz'd at and endeavours to Expose Now in this Case I would desire Mr. Keill to shew how according to the Laws of Bodies with us that so Thin Atmosphere of a Comet can sustain at the distance of so many Thousand Miles from its Center such Clouds or Opake Masses as it frequently does Nay if we come to the Planets which appear to be Bodies so like to our Earth as to require the same general Measures and Laws in them we may find such a Ring about Saturn as 't will be hard to account for by the Mechanical Laws upon our Earth Sure there is no reason to imagine that because God has been pleas'd to fix several arbitrary Laws and Powers of Bodies resulting from them in our little System that therefore he has confin'd himself to ordain no others in different ones To give an instance The Particles of our Elastical Fluid or Air may be preserv'd from coming close together as Mr. Keill Vid Newt p. 301. I suppose will not deny by a Special Law directly opposite to that of Gravity or by a particular vis centrifuga belonging alone to such Particles of Matter as the Air is composed of Now I believe Mr. Keill will hardly affirm this to be an Universal Law obtaining all over the Universe but confin'd to some parts of it at pleasure And many such Laws there may be in the Opinion of that Great Man whose very Name is enough to defend one as Mr. Keill justly speaks Vid. Verb. Newt N.T. pag. 225. marg p. 134. upon which the particular Phaenomena among us do generally depend Now though I believe such Laws as these various in various Systems yet I never imagin'd that the Mechanical Powers demonstrable from the Necessary Laws of Motion are at all so whatsoever for the diversion of his Readers Mr. Keill is pleas'd to suppose However By this Answer I not only it seems have prevented all possible Objections against my Theory a thing to be sure I cannot but be very fond of But I have Granted Mr. Keill all he design'd to prove viz. That the Earth was not form'd according to the known Laws of Mechanism but by the Efficacy of the Divine Spirit which moved on the Face of the Waters Now I must here deny the Opposition and affirm That in my Opinion the Earth was form'd according to the known Laws of Mechanism some of them introduc'd then by the Efficacy of the Divine Spirit which mov'd on the Face of the Waters and ever since continu'd among us For Almighty God to introduce New and Regular Laws at the beginning of a New World which are to be ever afterward observ'd in it I take to be a Miraculous Interposition very worthy of God and very accountable to our Reason But to suppose him by a Multitude of Miracles acting so disproportionably and disorderly as the common Scheme of the Creation obliges one to do is to introduce Miracles sufficiently strange and unaccountable to me and such as I can't be persuaded of by such Reasonings as I have yet met with upon this Occasion Though to Mr. Keill Pag. 4 5. who finds so little difficulty in this matter and without Authority can admit the Creation and I suppose the Annihilation of the Waters of the Deluge I little expect to shew that any Miracle can be strange and unaccountable As to the Internal Heat in the Earth which is allow'd by Mr. Keill and by reason of some Earthquakes of a very large Compass deriv'd from it can't but Reach downwards to a mighty Depth It must be accounted for whether it be a Cause of Fountains or not And if Mr. Keill think it more easily ascrib'd to the Mixture of Sulphureous Nitrous and Mineral Principles than to a Hot Central Solid He must give me leave to retain my former Opinion for these two Reasons Viz. Because the Earth at the Depth necessary for the Mixture is too close and fast and has no Caverns or Hollows requisite thereto And Because such a Mixture it self supposes that Heat and Motion of Parts as Causes which ought only to be the Effects thereof Besides I am still inclinable to ascribe the Origin of Springs in great part to the Vapors ascending and elevated by the Subterranean Heat for this particular and to me substantial Reason among others That the Springs break forth extraordinarily and run the fastest in a Frost as they ought to do in this Hypothesis when the Vapors in the Air seem most at rest and quiet as is commonly observ'd and particularly in the great Frost 3. Disc. 2 d Edit p. 109. by the Excellent Mr. Ray. To some other of whose Reasonings also I refer him upon this Occasion As to my Receding without Reason from the Letter of Moses in the Fourth Day 's work Mr. Keill has so little still to say against those large Accounts I have given of that Matter that I shall venture the Reasons I have already alledg'd with the Impartial and Considering without any addition Only his Argument against the Nature of the Hexaemeron viz. that of an Historical Iournal such as a Spectator on the Earth would have made Because there was in his Opinion no such Spectator in being to make it Is I think neither Conclusive nor True For though there were no real Spectator at first yet the Nature of the History might for good Reasons be such as I assign notwithstanding But to tell him my Mind freely I believe that the Messias was there actually present That He made the Journal that He deliver'd it afterwards to Moses on Mount Sinai and That from thence it appears in the Front of his Pentateuch at this day In the next place Mr. Keill endeavours to Vindicate his Assertion That the Heat of the Sun for half the Second Day or Year of the Creation could not elevate Vapors enow to fill the Seas of the Primitive Earth I had told him that I did not suppose the Waters in the Small Seas and Lakes of the Primitive Earth much above the Thousandth part of those in the present Seas and