needless here to insert Now concerning the first Difficulty which the Author has endeavoured here to explain in reference to the Source and Origine of the Antediluvian Waters I have this to offer He supposes that copious Vapours were continually rais'd from the Torrid Zone and the parts of the Temperate Zones next it and that they were hindred by the heat of the Sun from condensing into Clouds or Rains there being then no Mountains or other Cause to stay and compress them till having past through the Temperate Zones they came towards the extreme parts of the Earth or the Poles where they were continually condenst into Clouds Rains and Dews Now this I conceive is what no Meteorologist can allow for first though I should grant there were no Mountains before the Deluge for the existence of which from the Beginning I have already argued at least there must have been other Causes no less powerful to stop and compress the Vapours then arising notwithstanding the Author either has not taken notice of them or has here forgot them Certainly there were Woods before the Flood and those in a great plenty which to use the common Expression are known to attract Vapours as freely as Mountains and the Author allows the Trees then to have been of an imcomparably more vast and lofty growth than now the largest of our Trees being but shrubs to the Trees then and would not these attract Vapours in a plentiful measure whence Clouds and Rains would be produc'd to serve all the parts of the Earth It 's known that in several parts of the West-Indies wont to be much infested with Rains and Tempests after the Woods were there cut down those effects ceast Georg. Agricola tells us of a Valley in a Mountainous Tract in Germany which in Autumn and Winter was wont to be continually invested with thick Fogs hindring the sight of the Sun but at length the Woods being there cut down and some Adits driven in Mines for the Waters to pass those Fogs ceast I know also some Woods in England standing much on a Level which always cast forth a great smoak and have a Cloud over them against Rain the Country people thence taking their Prediction of it We know that in the Isle of Ferro there being not Fountains to supply the Inhabitants with fresh Water there grows a Tree over which a Cloud settles itself every Morning and resolves into Water which streams down from the Branches and is receiv'd in Vessels underneath for use And can we think but some of those stately Antediluvian Trees in case there had been no Rains would have perform'd this good natur'd Office to Man as indeed they had been bound to do it to Beasts for Men possibly might have then been supply'd with fresh Water in all the parts of the Earth by the means of Wells but how should the Beasts be supply'd remote from Rivers These Instances from natural History I think are sufficient to shew that Woods as well as Mountains attract Vapours and cause Rains and must have done it in the Antediluvian Earth Secondly to pass by Mountains and Woods and to consider the Quality of the Primaeval Earth which the Author supposes to have been at first soft and boggy can it be imagin'd that Vapours rais'd from it in the Torrid Zone and in the parts of the Temperate Zones next it should be convey'd to the Polar Zones for a Series of Ages without being condens'd into Clouds and Rains by the way when at the same time the Days and Nights are suppos'd to have been constantly of an equal length and when the Weakness of the Sun's Action arising from the Obliqueness of its Rayes in a good part of the intermediate Distance is duly consider'd Now this plainly shews that the Vapours rais'd by the Sun in the torrid and temperate Zones could never reach near the Poles before they were condens'd into Clouds and Rains even tho the Earth were all smooth and the Sun always kept the Aequinox Root as the Author supposes the state of things then was Thirdly how should Vegetation have been maintain'd for sixteen Hundred Years without Rains to refresh the Plants It 's true there are some parts now which have little Rain but either they lye near the Seas where they are plentifully supply'd with Vapours or have some annual Inundations as Aegypt c. which could not have held in the Antediluvian Earth Indeed the Earth being suppos'd soft at first it might possibly have supply'd Moisture for some Ages but after five Hundred or a Thousand Years what Moisture could that Earth have afforded And to talk of the Sun 's pumping up Waters from the Abysse lying two or three Miles deep in the Earth to supply Waters for the Rivers to run when the other Moisture was spent it seems to me too inconsistent to deserve naming Again it 's known that Rains are no less necessary now and then for purging the Air than a Dose of Physick may be for the Body of Man And tho it may be said that the Air then could not have been infested with evil Vapours as now the Quality of that Soil not affording them Yet as Purges are sometimes prescrib'd not only to evacuate the Body of evil Humours but in Cases of mere Plenitude when the Humours are not peccant so the Atmosphere then could not but be sometimes troubled with an Hazyness and Stagnation through the great plenty of Particles rais'd by the Sun 's constant Action and unless it were now and then purg'd by Rains Winds and fiery Meteors which are all deny'd it could not have been duly qualifi'd for the support of Animals and Vegetables to which I may add that were it not for Rains many times all the Fruits of Countries would be destroy'd by Insects devouring them in their first tender growth Lastly whereas the Author says that when the Vapours were arriv'd in the frigid Zones they would continually be there condens'd into Clouds Rains and Dews I reply if that holds true which I have suggested from Dr. Brown that the Sun keeping in the Aequator it would be always Night or Twilight in a more considerable part of the frigid Zones the Sun never rising above the Horizon and since the Author supposes those Zones to have been continually invested with Clouds which at least must have caus'd a Cimmerian Darkness there whether we can conceive any thing but continu'd Frosts and Snows to have been there which must have made them incapable of being Sources for those Waters he has suppos'd As to the second Difficulty the Author meets with here viz. for making the Waters flow on the even Surface of the Antediluvian Earth to explain which he has suppos'd that Earth to have been of an oval Figure in which the Polar Parts were higher than the Aequinoctial to afford a Descent to the Waters to form Channels to the extreme Parts of the Temperate Zones next the Torrid there are many things here
a Wicker Image in the form of a Man of a vast proportion whose inward Cavities they filled with live Men who were commonly Murtherers Thieves Robbers and other Criminals but for want of these often Innocents and then to set fire to it and consume them to ashes Now I think Mr. Sammes in his Britannia comes short in his guess concerning the grounds of this Festival Solemnity He conceives the Britains and Gauls by this solemn Act in burning these vast Images with Men in them express'd their detestation of the Phoenicians who he says were Men of a vast stature and who for a long time had subdu'd them and kept them in Slavery from which they were now got free This interpretation I say seems not to me to answer the Grandeur of the Act it being much more probable that by it they would present a solemn Type of the general Conflagration it being a Point of their Doctrine that such a thing was to be especially as it related to Mankind and the moral World tho as Boemus tells us they were wont also to make such great Images of Rowls of Hay and therein to inclose Beasts as well as Men and to set all on fire in like manner which nevertheless may also refer to Mankind for that in Man there are certain Fomites and Affects of Brutes which after they have been a long time habituated in him Man seems to have pass'd into their Nature the Pythagorean Transmigration according to the Sense of all the learned Platonicks except Plotinus importing no more which Transmigration was a Doctrine so antiently taught by the Druids that Lipsius says he knows not whether they learnt it of Pythagoras or he of them 3. Concerning the Learning of the Ancients whether it were in Conclusions and traditional only as the Author has intimated or from a contemplation of Causes we may consider what Plutarch says in the Case which is as follows All Generation proceeding from two Causes the first and most antient Divines and Poets kept themselves in a manner wholly to the first and most excellent Cause but as for necessary and natural Causes they meddle not with them whereas on the contrary the modern Philosophers leaving that excellent and divine Principle ascribe all to Bodies and Affects of Bodies and I know not what Juttings against each other Changes and Temperatures So that both are in a fault the latter because they either ignore or omit to tell us by whom the former after what manner and by what means each thing is effected Again as to the antient Philosophy we know that not long before the times of Plato and Aristotle and the other Philosophers all the Dogmata of Philosophy were not deliver'd openly but after an obscure and Aenigmatical manner under certain Veils which occult way of Philosophizing being learnt by the Greeks from the Egyptians they brought it into their Country and continu'd the same for a time being unwilling openly to publish among the vulgar that admirable Learning which being ill understood by them might make them fall from Religion and uprightness of Life till at length in succeeding Ages the whole came to be unravell'd and Men came to open Reasoning Hence it may be said that as our Corpuscularians or other Philosophers at present will not own themselves ignorant of the first Cause tho they mention him not in explaining natural Effects So the Antients knew well enough particular Causes it being wholly inconsistent with a Philosopher to rely barely on Tradition antient Fame or a general Cause as may be imagin'd tho they thought not fit generally to insist on any but the first Cause in their Writings more than what was done in a fabulous and aenigmatical way according to the stately Humour of those most antient times A Prophet indeed may say Lingua mea tanquam calamus scribae but for a Philosopher who pretends to know things not by divine Instinct or traditional Say-so's but by their adaequate Causes it 's Nonsense so to do Men of Sense as those Antients must be allow'd to have been have naturally an enquiring and restless Genius which will not permit them to sit still till they have either found that a Point is inscrutable in its Nature or have given themselves some tolerable account from Reason of it And any Man that considers how many things in the Books of the Old Testament or only in the Books of Job and Moses the two most antient authentick Writings perhaps of any extant are said according to a deep knowledge in Physiology and that Moses had his Learning from the Egyptians cannot think the Antients so ignorant in that kind as some may otherwise imagin them to have been Indeed it does not appear that the Greeks receiv'd that Philosophy which is demonstrated by Reasons from the Egyptians what they chiefly receiv'd from them being chiefly what belongs to Ceremonies and the Mathematicks the grand Theorem amongst them which they most valu'd relating thereunto and hence when it 's treated of the Mathematicks and Mysteries we find the Chaldean and Egyptian Opinions quoted but for Reasoning in Philosophy they are not mention'd by Aristotle and Plato and nevertheless we may conclude that from what the Egyptians set forth under Veils in their Aenigmatical way us'd chiefly by them for the sake of their grand Mystery which never was nor will be made common the Greeks by solving it compos'd their Philosophy the Egyptians not caring that any Man should be made acquainted in the knowledg of natural Causes who was not initiated in the foresaid Mystery the knowledg of Nature being subservient thereunto And tho it does not fully appear by any thing we have remaining that the antient Chaldeans and Egyptians were so well seen in Physical things that they well understood what an universal Cause differ'd from particular Causes or what was the Office of that and these or what might be the sign of a thing whereof it was not the Cause yet when we consider the great insight they had in the Properties of natural things it may be a rational inducement for us to believe that they had likewise well consider'd the particular Causes whence they flow'd and if they did not make them publick nor the Properties themselves it was only on that ground mention'd by Aristotle to Alexander saying He is a Transgressor of the Divine Law who discovers the hidden Secrets of Nature and the Properties of things because some Men desire as much as in them lies to overthrow the Divine Law by those Properties that God has plac'd in Animals Plants and Stones Whence to keep the Divine Law in its full vigour the Antients made it their business alway to keep the People minding the prime Cause and no others which indeed it concerned them to mind And it 's observ'd even to this day in some Countries that Youth piously educated with a strong Sense and Zeal of Religion when they come to pass a Course of Philosophy and
that the common Laws of motion and gravity by which the Author pretends to establish his Hypothesis have no place here I may add that it 's the general Opinion of Divines that nothing of those things which God has made by himself and without the concurrence of any other Cause will ever have an end or total dissolution as the Author intimates this dissolution of the Earth to be for want of Principles in them sufficient for their eternal support tho God by his meer will may put an end to them or dissolve them as he pleases and therefore as the Earth and other Elements were made by God in the Beginning so according to their natures they will remain for ever without any destruction or dissolution as to the whole tho they may undergo some partial Changes And in reference to this the learned Vallesius on that passage of Esdras Considera ergo tu quoniam minori staturâ estis prae his qui ante vos qui post vos minori quam vos quasi jam senescentes creaturae fortitudinem juventutis praetereuntes Says but neither is that fourth Book of Esdras receiv'd by Divines nor could that Opinion ever down with me for the World has Ages according to divine Ordinations and the account of Times which God has with himself but not according to Nature since neither its rise was from Nature nor will its destruction so happen Indeed it may be that this or that little part of the Earth drain'd by long culture and sowing may decay but not the whole Earth neither does any little part of it ever so decay as things which really grow old so that it can never after resume its strength and as it were wax young again but all things pass away and return in a certain Circle according to all and each of their parts according to all by vicissitudes some being decay'd others render'd more fertile according to each each of them being alternately decay'd and restor'd And indeed the Learned Dr. Hakewill in his Apology has so well clear'd the Point against a general decay in the World that I think it past time of Day now to have it brought in question so that such a dissolution in the Earth tending to its general decay as the Author intimates may not be admitted I shall conclude this Chapter by observing that besides the miraculous Providence which the Author allows in the saving of the Ark his Hypothesis forces him to introduce two or three Miracles more as I shall shew in the Second Book Whence we shall find that what he has endeavour'd to save in one great Miracle he has been forc't to make out in little ones CHAP. IX NOW the Author comes to prove his Theory from the Effects and present Form of the Earth and in this Ninth Chapter after having observ'd that the most considerable and remarkable things that occur in the Fabrick of this present Earth are First subterraneous Cavities and subterraneous Waters Secondly the Channel of the great Ocean Thirdly Mountains and Rocks He proceeds to give an account of these according to his Hypothesis Beginning with subterraneous Cavities and Waters Saying that those Cavities were made upon the general Dissolution of the Earth according as the broken Fragments variously fell into hollow and broken Postures and that the subterraneous Waters are parts of the Abysse the Pillars and Foundations of the present Earth standing immerst in it Now I have shewn before that such an Orb of Earth and Dissolution of it on the Face of the Abysse for causing Noah's Deluge as the Author has suppos'd was impossible and consequently his Explanation here of subterraneous Cavities and Waters cannot hold I might add some things here for shewing the necessity of subterraneous Caverns in the Antediluvian Earth which the Author denies to have been But because in the following Chapters I shall shew the necessity of a Sea and Mountains in those times the Uses of which may be more conspicuous I shall pass by the Cavities at present CHAP. X. HEre the Author treats concerning the Sea-Channel and the Original of it the Causes of its irregular Form and unequal Depths as also of the Original of Islands their Situation and Properties He exaggerates much in the Description of the Sea-Chanel where amongst other things he says thus p. 128. When I present this great Gulph to my Imagination emptied of all its Waters naked and gaping at the Sun stretching its Jaws from one end of the Earth to another it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature And again p. 131. If we should suppose the Ocean dry and if we look't down from the top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell how horridly and barbarously would it look And with what Amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell or a wide bottomless Pit So deep and hollow and vast so broken and confus'd so every way deform'd and monstrous c. To this I must say as far as I can conceive of the Sea-Channel if it were empty and had a Sword upon it and Trees as the Land has I can fancy no other Prospect could be there than what the Earth now affords us We have Mountains now that appear as high to us as perhaps any would if we then stood in any part of the Sea-Channel and so for any other suppos'd Unevennesses Indeed to look upon many places of it naked without a Sword on them might not seem so well so draw off the Skin from the most beautious Creature on the Earth and see how it will look as for other Ghastliness I fancy none for when all is said it is but a Veil spread over half the Earth allow'd to afford a quarter of a Mile depth to the Sea taking one place with another thorowout and not being above two Miles deep at the deepest part and what is this in a Philosophical Consideration when compar'd with the vast Body it lies upon It 's a place fit to receive such a poor Lake as the Sea otherwise not worth naming being not comparably so much to the Body of the Earth as the thickness of a Leaf of the thinnest Paper drawn from one half part of a Globe of three feet Diameter takes from the bulk of that Globe Next the Author tells us there are three things particularly to be consider'd concerning the Sea-Channel viz. It s general Irregularity the vast Hollowness of its Cavity and the Declivity of its sides which lie shelving tho with some Unevenness from top to bottom And these he thinks may be aptly explain'd according to his Hypothesis by the fall of the Earth and are not explainable any other way and he gives us two Figures for representing the Fall of the Earth to effect these things The like he says for the Rise of original Islands which he counter-distinguishes from such as are factitious these being made either by the Aggestion of Sands or the Sea 's leaving the tops
and to have been educated by Oceanus and Tethys or by the Oceanine Nymphs the Air being chiefly fed by the Sea-Waters rarify'd And indeed it seems much more natural to me that the great Magazine of waters for supplying all the parts of the Earth should in good measure be plac't on that part of it where the strongest Action of the Sun is than to make it near the Poles where its Rays have little or no Effect or in places remote from the said part It 's true the Author may say the Waters are brought round again from the Poles to the Parts near the torrid Zone by the Rivers and that the Rivers terminating there these parts were all plashy and moorish whence the Sun might as well raise Waters to supply the Earth as from the Sea But still I say it 's unnatural not to place Waters where the strongest Action of the Sun is and again I cannot think those other Waters would serve the turn they being all fresh whereby notwithstanding their flowing a general Corruption must have follow'd in them as also in regard they were not refresht by Rains and frequent Fountains passing into them at certain distances as now Neither do I conceive they could have aptly maintain'd a Vegetation and Propagation of Species in Plants and Animals And I make no doubt but if the Uses of the Sea were duly inspected and stated its Waters as now qualifi'd with an highly fermented Brackishness would be found of as necessary use in carrying on the Oeconomy of the Macrocosm as the bilous pancreatick splenetick and other Juyces are for performing the like Office in the Body of Man or indeed as the learned Palaeopolitanus says to take the Sea from the Earth were the same as to drein an Animal of his Heart Blood To this we may add that if the concurrent Vote of all the Men of Sense of Antiquity signifies any thing they are unanimous in the Assertion of a Sea from the beginning so as a Commentator on Aristotle has truly observ'd that all those who have held the World Eternal held the Sea so too and all those that held the World to have had a beginning held the Sea to have existed together with it And we know that Neptune was always held an Antediluvian God and so we know the famous Division of the World betwixt the three Brothers Jupiter commanding the Air Neptune the Sea and Dis or Pluto the inward Regions of the Earth And indeed we find the Ancients so fond of a Sea that scarce any of them describe a terrestrial Paradise but mention the Sea with it CHAP. XI THIS Chapter treats concerning the Mountains of the Earth their greatness and irregular Form their Situation Causes and Origine First then the Author here gives us an Eloge on Mountains expressing himself thus The greatest objects of Nature are methinks the most pleasing to behold and next to the great Concave of the Heav'ns and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit there is nothing that I look upon with more pleasure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth There is something august and stately in the air of these things that inspires the Mind with great Thoughts and Passions We do naturally upon such occasions think of God and his Greatness and whatsoever has but the shadow and appearance of Infinite as all things have that are too big for our Comprehension they fill and overbear the Mind with their excess and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration But at last he concludes that these Mountains so specious as they seem are nought but great Ruins and then expatiates much in setting forth their Greatness irregular Form and Situation and lastly assigns their Causes and Origine Now as to the Causes and Origine of Mountains and the accidents belonging to them since I have already shewn that the Account which the Author has rendred of them upon the breaking of the Earth at the Deluge is erroneous I shall not here say more to them especially having intimated already in the fifth Chapter how I conceive Mountains a Sea c. may be accounted for more rationally another way but shall offer some things concerning the necessity and use of Mountains from the beginning of the World as I have already shewn the necessity of a Sea When a man considers the fair Encomium the Author has made on Mountains tho at last concluding them to be but a Ruin and excluding them his Antediluvian Earth he would be apt to say it 's pity that Earth suppos'd far to exceed the present should be without such noble Ruins and ev'n Paradise it self and indeed as the Ancients according to what I have intimated before scarce ever describ'd a Paradise without mentioning a Sea so they seldom did it without naming Mountains I know not how all Mankind may stand affected but I know a great part will agree with me that a level Country can never be so pleasant as a Country diversified in Site and Ornament with Mountains Valleys Chases Plains Woods cataractical Falls and Serpentine Courses of Rivers with a Prospect of the Sea c. What is a dull Level to this Where the sight is terminated at the next Hedge and if you raise Towers to overlook it it can never equal or come near the Charming variety of the other Nor does the Authors Instance in his Answer to Mr. Warren c. 7. seem to me to clear the Point where he says we are pleas'd with the looking upon the Ruins of a Roman Amphitheater or a Triumphal Arch tho time has defac'd its beauty For the question will still lie whether a Roman Amphitheater or Triumphal Arch in its Glory were not more beautiful and pleasing to behold than the Ruins of them and I shall still be of Opinion that the present Earth on the accounts before exprest has a more delightful and Charming prospect than its Antediluvian state as by the Author represented could have afforded but let us consider the use of Mountains We find the Ancients call'd the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Mother Earth for as Plato says the Earth does not imitate a Woman but a Woman the Earth and they compar'd the Mountains on the Earth to the breasts of a Woman and indeed if the thing be duly consider'd we shall find that the Mountains are no less ornamental and of necessary use to the Earth for affording continual streams of fresh Waters to suckle all her Productions than the protuberant Breasts of a Woman are both for beautifying her Person and yielding sweet streams of Milk for the nourishment of her Children Hence also they call'd Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multimamma and ador'd it by that name under the figure of an Hermaphrodite this Hermaphroditical Figure of Nature was to denote its double Power because the Ancients and among others of them Orpheus Trismegistus and Soranus said Nature was both male and female and hence with the Greeks
Nature's Productions being consider'd the Diversity of Seasons will be found absolutely necessary for them For tho the Sun keeping always in the Aequator there would be a Diversity of Climates according to the different Latitudes from it Yet no Man can think that this alone would so much diversifie Effects as withal the Sun's Access and Recess according to the Latitude of the Zodiack in the Ecliptick the Sun being the chief universal Cause in Nature's Productions and tho general Causes do not specifie alone yet particular or proxim Causes cannot exert their Power without these gradual Approachments and Retirements of the Sun Aristotle is plain in this Matter viz. That the Sun by its oblique Motion and not by its direct diversifies Effects Because the Sun being in an unequal distance its Motion must be unequal when the variety of Effects is caus'd Or we may say thus if the Sun causes things by its Heat and Motion and gives a differing Impulse by its Motion according to the Rectitude of its Rayes it cannot but diversifie upon such gradual Accesses and Recesses To conclude the four Seasons of the Year seem so natural as nothing more if we consider their Analogy with the four Elements the four Humors in Man's Body the four Quarters of the World the Ages the parts of the Days and Nights c. And every Season is tempered or season'd by another and all Fruits receive their Temperament in the Seasons from Heat Cold Rain c. so that they are call'd Seasons from their Seasoning and have a mutual Connexion and Dependence on each other for the general benefit of the Earth and as the Learned Dr. More says consulting with our own Faculties we observe that an orderly Vicissitude of things is most pleasant to us and much more gratifies the contemplative Property in Man so that on all accounts I must conclude the four Seasons to have been from all Ages And hence the Learned Vives says Non semper est idem habitus Coeli Soli quum nihil ordinatius cogitari possit aut descriptius mutantur enim rerum perpetuarum immutabilium actiones prout expedit iis ad quae referuntur And I believe that all Men considering the State of Nature as it is will say with Maximus Tyrius Natura est perfectissima harmonia Now if the Reasons which I have given against the suppos'd Site of the Sun or Earth to it before the Flood have any Weight as some of them seem to me to carry a demonstrative Force in shewing the Nullity of the Author's Hypothesis in this Point then the three general Characters or Properties which he ascribes to the Golden Age and to Paradise viz. The perpetual Spring against which I have also particularly urg'd some Reasons the spontaneous Fertility of the Earth and the Longaevity of Animals and Vegetables all being chiefly grounded by him on the suppos'd Site of the Sun or Earth to it must fall of course unless other Reasons are assign'd for them than this he has urg'd There still remains the third Difference which he assigns to the Primaeval Earth from the present viz. That the Figure of it was more apparently and regularly oval than it is now which Difference I shall refute in my Considerations on the Fifth Chapter of this Book where he treats particularly of this oval Figure of the Earth Now as to the Longaevity before mention'd besides what the Author has said of it in this Chapter he has added another Chapter particularly concerning it the Contents of which I shall first set down and then offer what I have to say upon it CHAP. IV. HEre the Author by way of Digression treats concerning the natural Causes of Longaevity He sets forth that the Machine of an Animal consists of Springs and which are the two principal and endeavours to make out that the Age of the Antediluvians is to be computed by Solar not Lunar Years He says therefore that in our Bodies we may consider three several Qualities or Dispositions according to each whereof they suffer Decay First their Continuity Secondly that Disposition whereby they are capable of receiving Nourishment which we call Nutribility and Thirdly the Tone or tonical Disposition of the Organs whereby they perform their several Functions In all these respects they would decay in any state of Nature but far sooner and faster in the present state than in the primaeval As for their Continuity he says all consistent Bodies must be less durable now than under the first order of the World because of the unequal and contrary Motions of the Elements or of the Air and AEther that penetrate and pervade them But it is not the gross and visible Continuity of the parts of our Body that first decays there are finer Textures that are spoyl'd insensibly and draw on the Decay of the rest such as are Secondly that Disposition and Temper of the Parts whereby they are fit to receive their full Nourishment and especially that Construction and Texture of the Organs that are preparatory to this Nutrition These being also wrought upon by external Nature whose Course while it was even and steady and the ambient Air mild and balmy preserved the Body much longer in a fresh and fit temper to receive its full Nourishment and consequently gave longer bounds both to our Growth and Life But the third thing he says is the most considerable the Decay of the organick Parts and especially of the Organs preparatory to Nutrition To explain this Point he says that all the Organs of the Body are in the nature of Springs and that their Action is tonical for that no Matter that is not fluid has any Motion or Action in it but in vertue of some Tone If Matter be fluid its Parts are actually in motion and consequently may impel or give Motion to other Bodies But if it be solid or consistent the Parts are not separated or separately mov'd from one another and therefore cannot impel or give Motion to any other but in virtue of this Tone they having no other Motion of themselves This being observ'd he considers upon which of the Organs of the Body Life depends more immediately and the Prolongation of it He says then that in the Body of Man there being several Setts of Parts the Animal and Genital System have no Influence upon long Life being Parts nourished not nourishing Wherefore laying these aside there remain two Compages more the Natural and Vital which consist of the Heart and Stomach with their Appendances These are the Sources of Life and all that is necessary to the Constitution of a living Creature Wherefore we consider only these first Principles and Fountains of Life and the Causes of their natural and necessary Decay Now he says Whatsoever Weakens the Tone or Spring of these two Organs shortens the natural duration of Life and therefore in the primitive Earth the Course of Nature being even steady and unchangeable without different
Seasons it must have permitted Bodies to have continued longer in their Strength and Vigour than they can possibly do under these Changes of the Air. For a Conclusion to this Chapter he argues against those who say the Age of the Antediluvian Patriarchs is to be computed by Lunar Years or Months and not by Solar or common Years and he refutes that Opinion Now it appears from what I have urg'd against the last Chapter That the Sun could not be suppos'd with any ground to have still mov'd in the Aequinox in the Antediluvian World So that tho the Reasons the Author here gives for Longaevity may be plausible enough if apply'd and consider'd according to the order of things we now find establisht in the World and which we have reason to conclude must have been so from the beginning we must not go about to alter the Frame of the World to gratifie them Yet since he urges that the Antediluvian long Life ought to be ascrib'd to the Aequinox Course of the Sun making always one Season we shall consider first whether one even and continu'd Season such as that Course must cause would make most for the Prolongation of Life or such a Change of Seasons as we have now and Secondly what other plausible Reasons may be assign'd for the Antediluvian Longaevity besides this Course of the Sun which the Author urges for The Learned Weindrichius in his Problems treats this for one Whether it were not better that Nature had instituted only one Constitution of the Year as that of the Spring or to Change it into four different Seasons and why necessarily there have been four And concludes it was far better that Nature has constituted these notable Changes of the Air than otherwise it would be The effect of his Reasoning runs thus If any Man shall say that an even Season which holds a mean is more proper for those Bodies which are duly tempered as being apt to preserve them in that Temper which a Change by exceeding Qualities would be apt to corrupt we also confess that those Corpora Quadrata such as describ'd by Galen require such a Conservation but because it 's extreamly rare that such compleatly sound Bodies are to be found as Galen says therefore Bodies could not be preserv'd in that temper which they had not For almost all Bodies exceed in some Quality which must also have held in the Antediluvians tho we may allow them to have been generally of a sounder Constitution than Bodies are at present and if at any time there be a Body of an exact temper it 's so only for an instant and therefore since Bodies could not be conserv'd by one Season always alike Nature foresaw that if there were one Season in which Cold and Moisture reign'd as the Winter then old People and all those who were of a cold and moist Temperament would die because the Distemper would be more encreast wherefore it made a notable Change in which an exceeding Heat should sway which Season is call'd Summer during which that notable Moisture remits and is diminisht and by this means such as are moist become Temperate th'Errour committed in the Winter and Spring by reason of their Humidity being thereby corrected Again Young People and those that have hot and dry Bodies must necessarily die if it were alway Summer because they would be wholly dryed by its Heat therefore Nature to prevent this made a Winter cold and moist to correct the Errour committed in the Summer And in fine since all Bodies have some excess of Quality there ought to be different Seasons that some may live more commodiously in this Season others in another For by this means all Bodies succeed in Life and so th' Order of th' Universe is conserv'd Weindrichius adds But what shall we say to the Authority of Hippocrates saying The Changes of Seasons bring forth Diseases For instance an hot Season as the Spring stirs up store of matter which is gathered together in Bodies in the Winter by its cold Constitution which being stirr'd and mov'd it brings forth Diseases whence many Diseases in the Spring are engendred But Hippocrates says this is not done through the fault of the Spring it self that it generates Diseases of it self it being the healthiest part of the Year but by reason of a multitude of ill Humours gather'd together in the Winter whence we see that those who are free from ill Humours live very healthy in the Spring This Season therefore is said to generate Diseases because the Humours lurking in the Body before and which were not mov'd are stirr'd now and being thus agitated stir up Diseases for Hippocrates says they bring forth because they do not make but stir up the Humours which afterwards are the Cause of Diseases nay the Changes of Seasons are so far from ingendring Diseases that they solve them as Galen also says and this we see very often done for if a Quartan rising in Autumn be not solv'd in the Winter it 's solv'd as the Spring comes on as Galen likewise says and if it be not solv'd in the Spring it 's afterwards solv'd in the approaching Summer Wherefore it 's better that Nature has distinguisht the Year by these four Changes because tho perhaps one Individuum might enjoy its Health more in one Season than in another because it would more agree with it yet since Nature has not made Seasons in respect of this or that Individuum but of all together or of a whole Species and Species's therefore that the Order of the Universe might be preserv'd by a certain heavenly and divine distributive Justice whereby it has form'd different Bodies as to their Temperatures it would also distinguish the Seasons of the Year and make them different and not of one kind that these should live well in the Summer those in the Winter and that the Diseases engendred in preceding Seasons should be solv'd in the following And we conclude that those Seasons then especially agree with living Creatures when they keep in their proper Nature as the Summer hot the Winter cold c. So far Weindrichius concerning this Point As for Causes assign'd by Authors or that may be assign'd for the Antediluvian Longaevity beside that of the Suns still moving in the Equinox urg'd by the Author I divide them into three kinds they are either Divine Coelestial or Sublunary By Divine I mean such as are from a particular Providence as Austin Rabbi Leui and others say those Antediluvian Fathers had long Life granted them by a particular Providence that the first World by a few might be peopled in a short time it being not to last long and that they might more conveniently learn things by a long experience So Josephus tells us that God gave long Life to those Fathers that they might teach Vertue and practise with conveniency those things which they had invented in Astronomy and Geometry the Demonstrations whereof they had
avoid Cavillations in this kind I shall only set down briefly what I conceive to have been the sense of the Ancients concerning the Chaos and the Mundane Egg and let it bear as far as it may though withal to lessen that Reverence which some may have for the Cosmogonia of the ancient Gentils I shall first set down the sense of Eusebius concerning it who says That though Plato out of a seeming compliance with the Laws of his City pretends to give credit to the Poetick Theogonia which is the same with their Cosmogonia as a Tradition deliver'd down from the Sons of the Gods who must not be suppos'd to have been ignorant of their Parents yet all the while he does but slily jeer it plainly intimating the fabulosity thereof when he affirms it to have been introduc'd not only without necessary Demonstrations but also without so much as Probabilities This being premis'd I may set down what my own thoughts may be concerning it as follows The Ancient Philosophers who made it their business to search into the Reasons of Humane and Divine things could not rest in the Examination and setting forth of the Causes of particular Effects they found here on the Earth but attempted the consideration of the whole World and how all things issued at first from their divine or metaphysical Principle Now the World being anterior to Mankind after they had contemplated the proceeding of it from God when they came to set it forth they could not more plausibly do it than by similitude or Analogy to those common Generations we have before us whence came the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg and by the references which they conceiv'd were betwixt the operations of the Ideas in the Divine Mind and those they observ'd in the mind of Man They observ'd that Nature and Art proceeded from certain obscure and rough Dilineations to a more exact Form and concluding that as Art imitates Nature so Nature does the Deity from whence it flowed they thought that by observing that order which Nature holds was the only method to find out the way of the Divine Operation But as I have intimated in my Considerations on the first Book I know not how far we may look upon any of the most learned amongst the Gentils to have held any real successive Changes to have pass'd in the Chaos toward the formation of the World their design in setting forth a Chaos and Changes it underwent seeming to have been only to help our way of conceiving by reducing all things mentally to Number and Order as issuing at first from one Principle according to the Pythagorean Philosophy deriving all things à monade or as rising ab ovo Analogically which amounts to no more than what Jamblicus says of the Egyptians viz. that they made Mud and Water floating the Chaos being suppos'd such their Hieroglyphick of material and corporeal things And as Austin says when the Ancients talk of a Beginning of the World intellerunt non esse hoc temporis sed substitutionis initium De Civ Dei l. 10. c. 31. Whereas the Author will not allow Moses's Cosmopaeia to be Philosophical it not passing from one rank of Beings to another in a Physical Order and Connection according to the motions and transformations of the Chaos Moses making all things to spring from the all-powerful Word of God one after the other in that order which was fittest for furnishing an habitable World according to a popular Decorum To this I say first that many Men already pretend to have shewn and among others the Learned Vallesius a due Physical Order and Connexion in Moses's Cosmopoeia and that all things past in it according to a due priority of Nature And concerning this Cosmopoeia I could wish to have read a Book writ by Don Isaac Abravanel a Spanish Jew mention'd in Father Simon 's Catalogue of Jewish Authors annext to his Critical History entituled Miphaboth Elohim Works of God where the said Rabbin has learnedly treated of the Creation of the World and withal examin'd whence Moses had what is writ in the Book of Genesis Secondly That when the Author shall shew us in a more Philosophical way than Moses has done let him take it from whom of the Gentils he pleases how the World at first proceeded from God we may hearken to him mean while there is this to observe first that the Creation was a Metaphysical act and the Order of it is incomprehensible to Man farther than it has pleas'd God to reveal it to him by his Prophets Secondly That I have already validly refuted as I conceive those separations which the Author has suppos'd to have past in the Chaos at the formation of the World Thirdly That if the Author or any Man else shall attempt to explain what the Ancients have said of a Chaos and any successive Changes it underwent when it form'd an habitable World before they expect us to acquiesce in their Explanation or to believe that the Ancients meant more in what they said in that kind than to render our thoughts easie as to an apprehension of a beginning of things by their setting it forth by a similitude to common Generations from Eggs they ought to bring that ancient debated Point to a clear determination viz. whether the Egg or Chick were first for those who maintain a Chaos and real successive Changes to have past in it must make out the Egg to have been before the Chick whereas Plutarch Macrobius and others who have debated the Point seem more inclin'd to the other Opinion holding all things at first to have been set in their perfect state through the perfection of the first Cause Aristotle also tells us that Pherecydes Syrus the Magi and others of the Sages affirm'd that the first Principle whence all other things were generated was the best or of an absolute perfect Being so that in the Scale of Nature things did not ascend upwards from the most imperfect to the more perfect Beings as the ancient Poets represent but on the contrary descend downwards from the most perfect to the less perfect of which Opinion he also declares himself Whereas the Author sets down this as a Maxim that what the Antients have said concerning the Original of the World from a Chaos or about its Periods or Dissolution is never to be understood of the great Universe but of our Earth or of this sublunary World and thinks he can demonstrate that Moses's Cosmogonia is so to be under stood I know not whether it may be so easily done finding the greatest part of Writers to be of a contrary Opinion And those that maintain that Opinion may do well to tell us if the Heavens were for I know not what series of Ages before this Earth and sublunary Region what this place was before the time of the Creation set forth by Moses whether it were a Vacuum or a Spacium imaginarium for it would seem an odd Hole left
consider second Causes often remit of that earnest Devotion which they us'd before That Saying of the Lord Bacon in reference to this being true viz. That a narrow and slight inspection into Nature inclines Men of weak Heads to Atheism tho a more thorow insight into the Causes of things makes them more evidently see the necessary dependance of things on the great and wise Creator of them CHAP. II. and III. IN the Second Chapter the Author gives a general Account of Noah's Flood proposing also an estimate of what quantity of Waters would be necessary for making it and endeavours to shew that the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible In the Third Chapter he endeavours to answer any Evasions and to shew that there was no new Creation of Waters at the Deluge also that it was not particular and national but extended throughout the whole Earth and concludes with a short Prelude to the Account and Explication he intends to give of it Now as the first Chapter was only introductory to the Work so we find these two Chapters are only preparatory to his Hypothesis by setting forth the Inconsistency of other Opinions concerning the Deluge and in regard it does not concern my Undertaking to consider how validly he has refuted the Opinions of others but how firmly he has establish'd his own I shall pass by these two Chapters to proceed to the Theory he proposes tho I may have occasion now and then in what will ensue to bring some part of their Contents under consideration CHAP. IV. and V. THE Author coming now to establish his Hypothesis undertakes to make out two things First how the Earth from the beginning rose from a Chaos and in what form it continu'd till the time of the Deluge and Secondly how a Deluge at length happen'd his Fourth and Fifth Chapters which are now to be consider'd are for making out the Composition of his Earth or how it rose at first from a Chaos and what its antediluvian State was As for the Dissolution of it at the time of the Deluge he treats of that afterwards In the beginning therefore of his Fourth Chapter before he lays down his Theory he thinks fit in the first place to remove an Opinion concerning the Eternity of the World which he says takes away a Chaos and any beginning to the Earth and consequently the Subject of his Discourse whereupon he writes thus It has been the general Opinion and Consent of the Learned of all Nations that the Earth arose from a Chaos This is attested by History both sacred and profane only Aristotle whom so great a part of the Christian World have made their Oracle or Idol both maintain'd the Eternity of the Earth and the Eternity of Mankind that the Earth and the World were from everlasting and in that very form they are in now with Men and Women and all living Creatures Trees and Fruits Metals and Minerals and whatsoever is of natural Production We say all these things arose and had their first Existence and Production not six Thousand Years ago he says they have subsisted thus for ever through an infinite Series of past Generations and shall continue as long without first or last and if so there was neither Chaos nor any other beginning to the Earth c. Having thus stated this Opinion he urges first the Scriptures against it and then many Arguments from natural Reason which would be too tedious here to set down but however this point of Beginnings being very nice and variously disputed amongst the Ancients and the foundation on which the Author proposes to build his Theory I must say a little of what I have consider'd on it I find then that Aristotle was not the first Introducer of this Opinion of the worlds Eternity as the Author intimates him to have been and that those who in their Accounts of beginnings describe a Chaos are not thence forc'd to deny the same Eternity Aristotle is so far from being the first that held this Opinion that ev'n his Master Plato according to the sense of most of his Expositors as Crantor Plotinus Porphyrius Jamblicus Proclus Macrobius Censorinus that excellent Christian Philosopher Boethius and many others who generally maintain'd the same is concluded to have held that the World was always and always was from God and flowed from him for they say God always is but that the World is always a making and flows and if it be consider'd as to a beginning of time the World may be said not to have had any birth but if as flowing perpetually from God it s continually brought forth Nor may the World be said less to depend of God if it always has depended and ever shall depend of him than if at some instant of time it began to depend and may cease from it as the light would no less draw its Origine from the Sun and depend of it if it had always flow'd from it and should always so do than if it began at some instant of time to slow thence Those therefore who maintain this Opinion will say that God did not at any time bring forth the matter new but from Eternity and that likewise with its Ornament altho it be conceiv'd without its Ornament before than with it for Nature wants its order which it expects from another and since each thing is conceiv'd first according to what it is than according to what it receives it may properly be conceiv'd first without Order being void of it in itself So that when these men talk of a Chaos and Changes it underwent before it came to be an habitable World they understand it only as to the natural order of things according to our way of conceiving Amongst the Schoolmen the Thomists who generally take upon them to defend Aristotle say It cannot be convinc'd by any natural efficacious Reason that the World was not made from Eternity but in time because the thing not implying Contradiction it depended meerly on the will of God and that when Aristotle said the World was from Eternity he said it only as opining because nothing certain can be had in this matter but by the sole light of Revelation and Faith according to what the Apostle says By faith we understand that the worlds were fram'd by the word of God Tho others say Aristotle affirm'd that God as being a necessary Agent made the World from Eternity Others that where he endeavours to prove the Eternity of the World he keeps himself within the Principles of the Science he was treating of viz. Physiology and thought himself not there accountable for Metaphysical Birth However this may be I think it manifest that the Opinion was much more Ancient than Aristotle Xenophanes before him asserted the word to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philolaus likewise that famous Pythagorean whose Books Plato is said to have bought for a great price of his Relations and to have compos'd his