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
the World compos'd these turbulent Commotions and put a stop to their exorbitant Efforts And this seems to me a more apt Explication of the original Formation of the World than that the Author would introduce I may farther here note that tho I think the original Formation of the World may be accounted for this way yet I am of opinion there is no Mountain on the Earth now that is an original Mountain or that existed when the World first rose and conclude with Aristotle that the Sea and Land have chang'd places and continue so to do and I think it not possible for any Man fairly to solve the Phaenomenon of marine Bodies found in Mountains by any other Principle especially by a Deluge caus'd as the Author has propos'd But it being not my business here to set for t a Theory of the Earth but only to shew the Inconsistency of the Author's Hypothesis I shall not enlarge at present in making out these things but refer them to a particular Tract I design to publish with what convenient speed I may the Demonstrations whereof will refer to certain Cuts taken from a Collection of Fossil's I have by me where I hope to satisfie the Author in some tolerable way concerning the Rise of Mountains Islands c. and to solve all the Objections he has made against their Rise any other way but what he has propos'd CHAP. VI. WE are now come to the main drift of the Author 's Undertaking viz. How the Deluge was caus'd And in this Chapter he proposes to shew that it happen'd upon the Dissolution of the first Earth and that the Form of the present Earth then rose from the Ruins of the first First then he here presents us with a Figure of the Earth all smooth on the Convex part as he conceivs it must necessarily have been as it rose from a Chaos the great Abysse suppos'd to be spread under it And next he supposes that at a time appointed by Providence this great Abysse was open'd or that the Frame of the Earth broke and it fell down into it And this he says would first cause an universal Deluge by the great Commotion and Agitation of the Abysse on the violent Fall of the Earth into it Then after the Agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Channels and the dry Land appear'd we should see the true Image of the present Earth in the Ruins of the first The Surface of the Globe he says would be thence divided into Sea and Land the Land would consist of Plains Valleys Mountains with Caverns containing subterraneous Waters c. The Sea would have Islands in it and Banks and shelfy Rocks on its Shoar c. And these things in the following parts of his Work he examins piece-meal but first here he considers the general Deluge and how aptly this Supposition represents it Supposing therefore it will be easily allow'd that such a Dissolution of the Earth would make an universal Deluge he enquires in what order and from what Causes the Frame of this exterior Earth was dissolv'd The great Cause he assigns for producing this great Effect is the continued Heat of the Sun which he supposes in the Antidiluvian World to have always mov'd in the Equinox there being then no Colds nor Rains nor Change of Seasons so that what by its parching Heat sucking out the Moisture of the Earth which was the Cement of its Parts and so drying it immoderately and causing it to cleave in sundry places and what by rarifying the Waters under the Earth into Vapours which would thence force a way for their Dilatation and Eruption he concludes the Dissolution followed He exemplifies his Doctrine first by an Aeolipile or an hollow Sphere with water in it which if the mouth of it be stopt which gives the vent the water when rarified by the heat of the fire will burst the Vessel with its force Secondly in an Egg which being heated before the fire the moisture and air within being rarified will burst the shell and he is the more free to instance this Comparison because he says when the Ancients speak of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg they say that after a certain period of time it was broken Thirdly In Earthquakes which generally he says arise from the like Causes and often end in a like effect viz. a partial Deluge or innundation of the place or Country where they happen which may naturally lead us to conceive that a general one has so come to pass Lastly He says the main difficulty propos'd was to find Waters sufficient to make an universal Deluge and that after sometime it should so return into its Channels that the Earth should become again habitable for according to the common Opinion he says it was impossible that such a quantity of waters should be any where found or be brought upon the Earth and then if it were brought that it should be again removed whereas this explication performs the same effect with a far less quantity of water which is easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done for he says when the Earth broke and fell into the Abyss a good part of it was cover'd by the meer depth of it and those parts of it that were higher than the Abyss was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm water were reacht and overtopt by the Waves during the agitation and violent commotions of the Abyss and to represent this commotion to us he supposes a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean and believes that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But if a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks a great Island or a Continent fall from that height the dashing must rise even to the highest Clouds and he thinks it is not to be wondred that the great tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months because besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abyss was extremely violent here were ever and anon some secondary ruins which made new Commotions lasting the time suppos'd till the waters by degrees were retreated the greatest part of them constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth And from things thus explain'd he concludes that this third and last Proposition is made out viz. That the disruption of the Abyss or Dissolution of the primeval Earth and its fall into the Abyss was the cause of the universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World I have been the more particular in stating this part of the Theory because the main point under debate is here contain'd which I must now examine The Causes assign'd by the Author for such a dissolution of the Earth as is mention'd do not seem to me so
a particular Providence for upholding the Ante and Postdiluvian Longaevity will be forc'd to relapse here for any thing that can be made out from Authentick History or Reason in the Case Not but we have several Instances of late date of Persons who have liv'd two or three Hundred Years and upwards But this has not been successively as in the Patriarchs and there is odds betwixt three or four Hundred Years and near a Thousand And whereas the Author urges for a general Longaevity among the Antediluvians as well as for some time after the Flood we do not find it authoriz'd by Scripture And that it was granted only to the Patriarchs and some few others by a particular Providence and this through the means of a certain Panacaea well known to the Mystae I am satisfi'd according to what is written of it by the foremention'd Adept Philosopher But leest instead of open reasoning I seem to obtrude Mystery on the World which by some may be interpreted vain Ostentation I refer the Reader to the Book it self where he may read at least what is written and if hapily he does not fully apprehend what is said he may believe or reject what he thinks good CHAP. V. IN this Chapter the Author treats concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth what the state of the Regions of the Air was then and how all Waters proceeded from them How the Rivers arose what was their Course and how they ended He applies also several places in Sacred Writ to confirm this Hydrography of the Earth especially the Origin of the Rainbow He says then that the Air being always calm and equal before the Flood there could be no violent Meteors there nor any that proceeded from extremity of Cold as Ice Snow and Hail nor Thunder neither nor could the Winds be either impetuous or irregular in that smooth Earth there being one ev'n Season and no unequal action of the Sun But as for watery Meteors or those that rise from watery Vapours more immediately as Dews and Rains there could not but be plenty of those in some parts or other of the Earth the action of the Sun being strong and constant in raising them and the Earth being at first moist and soft and according as it grew more dry the Rays of the Sun would pierce more deep into it and reach at length the Great Abysse which lay under the Earth and was an unexhausted storehouse of new Vapours He adds but the same Heat which extracted these Vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into Clouds or Rains in the warmer parts of the Earth and there being no Mountains at that time nor contrary Winds nor any such Causes to stay them or compress them we must consider how they would be dispos'd off To this he says as the heat of the Sun was chiefly towards the middle part of the Earth so the copious Vapours rais'd there being once in the open Air their Course would be that way where they found least resistance to their motion which would be towards the Poles and the colder Regions of the Earth for East and West they would meet with as warm an Air and Vapours as much agitated as themselves which therefore would not yield to their progress that way So that the regular and constant Course of the Vapours of the Earth would be towards the extreme parts of it which when arriv'd in those cooler Climates would be there condenst into Dews or Rains continually This Difficulty he says for finding a Source for the Waters in the Primaeval Earth was the greatest he met with in the Theory which being thus clear'd he finds a second Difficulty viz. how those Waters should flow upon the even surface of the Earth or form themselves into Rivers there being no descent or declivity for their Course And he has no way to explain this but by giving an oval Figure to that Earth in which the Polar Parts he says must have been higher than the Aequinoctial that is more remote from the Center by which means the Waters that fell about the extreme parts of the Earth would have a continual descent toward the middle parts of it and by vertue of this Descent would by degrees form Channels for Rivers to pass in through the temperate Climates as far as the Torrid Zone And here he meets a third Difficulty viz. What Issue the Rivers could have when they were come thither To this says he when they were come towards those parts of the Earth they would be divided into many Branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drunk up by the dry sandy Earth For he concludes as those Rivers drew nearer to the Equinoctal parts they would find a less declivity or descent of Ground than in the beginning or former part of their Course for that in his suppos'd oval Figure of the Earth near the middle part of it the Semidiameters he says are much shorter one than another and for this reason the Rivers when they came thither would begin to flow more slowly and by that weakness of their Current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets or else having no force to wear a Channel would lie shallow on the ground like a plash of Water As for the Polar parts of the Earth he says they would make a particular Scene by themselves the Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon which makes him think the Rains would not fall so much there as in other parts of the Frigid Zones where he makes their chief Seat and Receptacle whence sometimes as they flowed they would swell into Lakes and toward the end of their Course parting into several streams and Branches they would water those parts of the Earth like a Garden Having examin'd and determin'd of the state of the Air and Waters in the Primitive Earth he considers some Passages in Holy Writ which he conceives represent them of a different Form from the present order of Nature and agreeing with what he has set forth First he tells us that the Rainbow mention'd by Moses to have been set in the Clouds after the Deluge makes out that those Heavens were of a different Constitution from ours And secondly that St. Peter says the Antediluvian Heav'ns had a different Constitution from ours and that they were compos'd or constituted of Waters c. He urges concerning the Rainbow that it was set in the Clouds after the Deluge as a Confirmation of the Promise or Covenant which God made with Noah that he would drown the World no more that it could not be a Sign of this or given as a Pledge or Confirmation of such a Promise if it were in the Clouds before and with no relation to this Promise He adds much more concerning the Nature of Signs giv'n by God mention'd in the Scriptures which I think too tedious and
the following Passage Page 3. He says thus There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the universal Deluge or discovered from the Contemplation of the Earth that there had been such a thing already in Nature 'T is true they often talk of an Alternation of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth but they speak of them as things to come at least they give no Proof or Argument of any that have already destroy'd the World And beneath As to the Conflagration in particular this has always been reckon'd among the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks That the World was to be destroyed by Fire and their Books are full of this Notion but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration nor what preparations there are in Nature or will be toward that great Change And we may generally observe this of the Ancients that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions than in Demonstrations they had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premises or Proofs which is an Argument with me that the knowledg they had was not a thing of their own Invention or which they came to by fair Reasoning and Observation upon Nature but was deliver'd to them from others by Tradition and ancient Fame sometimes more publick sometimes more secret these Conclusions they kept in mind and Communicated to those of their School or Sect or Posterity without knowing for the most part the just Grounds and Reasons of them On this Passage I have the following Particulars to offer 1. We have no reason to expect that the Greeks or Latins should have given any Account of the Deluge in Noah's time unless we will allow the Deluge of the Ancient Ogyges which is said to have lasted nine months to have been the same with that of Noah for they pretend not to have any Records farther than that Ogyges wherefore all things among the Greeks which Antiquity had worn out of date were call'd Ogygia And if haply they had any thing of times before it came very obscurely to them whence they call'd the Ante-Ogygian Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was only what they had by Hearsay of the Egyptians or other Nations Those who have made any mention of the universal Deluge under Noah are The Sibyl in Lactantius de Ira Dei c. 23. Xenophon de Equivocis Fabius Pictor de Aureo Seculo Cato de Originibus Archilochus the Greek who introduces also the Testimony of Moses in his Book de Temporibus Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities from Mnaseas Hierom of Egypt and Berosus the Chaldean Alexander Polyhistor and Abydenus in Cyril's first Book against Julian Plato in his Timaeus Ovid and others of the Poets confound the Deluge of Noah with that of Deucalion describing this as general which in regard they must have known to have been particular I judg the scope of their Discourse chiefly tended to a moral or divine Institution the historical Narratson in itself being not true And Servius tells us that by a Deluge and Emphytheosis the Ancients understood a Change and a Melioration of times and we know Deluges were still introduc'd in the Iron age after a total corruption of Manners 2. As to Alterations by Deluges and Conflagrations which the Author intimates the Ancients to have held only by Tradition without finding by the Earth that any such things had been and without considering any Causes and Preparations in Nature for them I find it to be otherwise First I think it plain enough among the ancient Philosophers tho unobserv'd by the Author that they discover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth there had been already such a thing as a general Deluge at least successively so as the Waters of the Sea had some time or other cover'd the whole face of the Earth Thus Ovid introduces Pythagoras saying Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago Conchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus Anchora summis Quodque fuit campus vallum decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor c. I 've seen what was most solid Earth before Become a Sea the Sea become a Shore Far from the Sea Sea-Cocles often lie And Anchors old are found on Mountains high Land-floods have made a Valley of a Plain And brought a Mountain with them to the Main And there you may read much more to the same purpose and all ancient Histories as well as modern tell us of such marine Bodies found on Mountains some urging them as Arguments for such Changes as there are learned Men now living who think they can demonstrate from such Bodies found on Mountains at all distances from the Sea that there is no part of the Land now appearing but has sometime been cover'd by the Sea I could produce much matter on this Argument were it not that I am unwilling to anticipate here what I have thoughts of setting forth in a particular Tract Again as for Causes of those Changes we find that Seneca a Master among the Stoicks describing an universal Deluge assigns Causes for them The sum of his Reasoning is thus He examines whether an universal Deluge will be caus'd by the overflowing of the Sea or by continual Rains or by the eruption of new Fountains and concludes it will be by all three joyn'd together and that nothing is difficult to Nature when she hastens to her end In the rise of things she uses a gentle effort and carries them on towards their perfection by unperceivable degrees but when the time of their Dissolution comes it 's done all on a sudden as he exemplifies in Animals and so he says Cities are long building and Woods long growing but reduc'd to Ashes in a few hours Therefore when that fatal Day shall come many Causes will act together There will be a general Concussion of the Earth opening new Sources of Waters continued and violent Rains whence at length the Snows heap'd up on Mountains for many Ages will be dissolv'd whereby the Rivers greatly swelling and forc'd by Tempests will overflow their Channels and by their rapid course carry all before them and many times their courses to the Sea being damn'd up they will return back and drown whole Countries mean while the immoderate Rains continuing the Winter Season encroaching on the Summer and the Seas being mightily increas'd by the vast discharges of the overflowing Rivers and being infested with violent Tempests they will find their Channel too narrow for them and overflow the Land forcing the Rivers back in a tempestuous manner towards their Sources and so at length bury the whole Earth in Waters unless happily for a time some of the Mountains may here and there stand as scatter'd Islands but at last there being a general Effort in the Waters as at
Spring-Tides the whole will be overflown He farther tells us that as Fires and Waters bear sway o'er earthly things their rise and ruine being from and by them it was the Opinion of Berosus that Deluges and Conflagrations will happen thro the Courses of the Planets and that a Conflagration shall happen when all the Planets which now keep different courses shall meet in Cancer being so plac'd that it shall pass in a direct line through them all and that a Deluge shall happen when the said Planets shall so meet in Capricorn the one making the Summer Solstice and the other the Winter Signs of great Power being the Points for the Changes of the Year And Seneca receives these Causes also one Cause being too little for so great a Ruin He adds whether the World be an Animal or a Body Nature governing it as Trees and standing Corn From its beginning there was included in it whatsoever it ought to act and to undergo to its end as in the Seed is comprehended the whole state of the future Man so that the Child yet unborn has the Law of a Beard and grey Hairs the Lineaments of the whole Body and of the succeding Age being there in little and conceal'd So he says the Origine of the World contain'd as well the Sun and Moon and Courses of the Planets and the Rise of Animals as those things with which earthly things are chang'd In these was an Inundation which happens by the Law of the World no otherwise than Summer and Winter And he says all things will help Nature for the performance of her Constitutions but the Earth it self will afford it the greatest cause to drown it which will be resolv'd into Moisture and flow by a continued consumption the tainted parts as in Bodies ulcerated by degrees bringing the rest to a general Colliquation Here we plainly see what the grounds of the Stoicks and others were for admitting Deluges and Conflagrations They having observed that particular Bodies on the Earth had a beginning and decay and were again renewed by their Seeds thence by Analogy concluded that the same Order must pass as to the whole World and again having consider'd that Fires and Waters bore the sway o'er earthly things and that the one prevail'd in the Summer the other in the Winter they thence imagin'd that besides ordinary Summers and Winters whereby the ordinary Changes are wrought on the Earth there would happen some great periodical Revolutions in the Heavens causing so great a Predominancy of Fires and Waters here below that they would cause general Changes over the whole face of the Earth at once Bede speaking of these Changes says it was the opinion of all the Philosophers that earthly things received their Periods sometimes by a Deluge and sometimes by a Conflagration because the Waters being plac'd under the Fountain of Heat it happens that the Moisture encreases by degrees and overpowers the Heat till being detain'd by no bounds it diffuses it self over the Earth and drowns it which Moisture at length being dry'd by the Heat of the Sun and Drought of the Earth the Heat encreases in its turn and over-powers the Moisture till being diffus'd over the Earth it burns it He adds there are some that say these things happen through the general Elevation and Depression of the Planets for if all the Planets are elevated together being remov'd from the Earth more than they ought they consume less of the Moisture whence the Moisture encreasing it diffuses it self o'er the Earth and causes a Deluge If but one two or three of them are elevated without the others the Moisture thereby does not abound for what increases by their remoteness is dry'd by the nearness of the others but if all are depress'd together they burn the Earth and cause a Conflagration doing too much by their nearness as by their remoteness they did too little Many others who write of these Mundane Changes word themselves much after the same manner Whence we find the Antients did not barely rely on Tradition for these Changes but had such grounds as they conceiv'd rational for admitting them Now if it shall be said that the Causes they have assign'd are not competent for such Changes possibly it may be because they sought for Causes which were not in Nature to be found For those Antients either supposing the Deluge of the antient Ogyges to have been general or having heard that some other Deluge had been affirmed so to have been and finding by marine Bodies dug in Mountains that the Waters of the Sea had been there they attempted to assign Causes for an universal Change at one effort whereas those Causes upon examination were found either to have been assign'd gratis without any solid ground or to answer only partial Changes Hence Aristotle and the soundest Reasoners well seeing the slight Presumptions on which this Opinion was grounded derided the Stoicks Epicureans and others who maintain'd it For first Aristotle knew they had no sound Records for making out that any such Change had happen'd in Nature And secondly he having well weighed the Rotation of the Elements and what past in particular Bodies found that what flow'd from the later receded from them which must cause a decay but whatever flowing there were in the Elements it still return'd into them so that nothing was lost or decay'd as to the whole nor so much to any chief part as to cause a total Dissolution And since no Man that I know of has hitherto assign'd a Cause able to work a general Change in the Earth at once I should be inclin'd according to natural Principles to follow his Opinion a general Change being to be ascribed to Miracle for ought I know till some Prophet shall come to help us out As for what has been said by the Sibylls and antient Magi among the Gentiles concerning these Changes I speak not of what has been prophetically deliver'd of them in Sacred Writ which I judg refers to a miraculous hand we know they were Persons chiefly concern'd in the Politick Government of their times and being greatly skill'd in Adept Philosophy as some of our Prophets also transcendently were they knew how to adapt the great Phaenomena of the Earth to the Microcosm and moral World and there is a Mystery in what they intimate as to these Changes which I think not fit here to explain but may note that those who are seen in the Promethean Arcanum Astrologicum and have heard the seven-Reed Pipe of Pan know on what grounds the above-mention'd Astrological Causes for Deluges and Conflagrations were originally introduc'd and whither they tend The antient Druids of our Nation who were the most famous for Adept Philosophy of any Men of these parts of the World nay and as Pliny says the Persian Magi may seem to have had their rise from them and who govern'd all here in their Sacrifices which they thought most acceptable to their Gods were wont to make
competent as would be expected for such a Work The Sun doubtless supposing as the Author does that in the Antedilunian World it always kept in the Aequinox there being no Rains Cold nor changes of Seasons would heat dry and cleave the Earth in some parts especially in the Torrid Zone considerably but withal it must be consider'd how far the action of the Sun could penetrate for producing the effect propos'd it s known that if a Wall be heated red hot on one side it still continues cold on the other It s also a known Experiment that a good Thermometer plac'd in a subterraneous Grotto of an ordinary depth scarce varies perceivably in the hottest day of Summer and the coldest day of Winter how then shall the Sun penetrate three miles and three quarters deep into the Earth for so deep the Author seems to suppose his Orb of Earth to have been as I shall by and by shew and heat an Abyss of waters lying under it so as to rarifie it into vapours Qui queat hic subter tam crasso corpore terram Percoquere humorem calido sociare vapori Praesertim cùm vix possit per septa domorum Insinnare suum radiis ardentibus aestum And indeed Heat being not essentially in the Sun but an effect of the light by whose beams its imparted to us where Light is excluded Heat also must of course The Grotto where no operation of the Suns Heat is found has an open passage into it for the Suns operation if it could there exert it whereas the Author supposes the Antediluvian Earth to have been one continued substance without so much as a Cavern in it Again we must consider of what nature the Torrid Zone must have been and the Author in his second Book concludes it a sandy Desart if so Sand is not inclinable to cleave but soon fills up any Cleft made in it as I believe may be observ'd in all the sandy Desarts now extant and if Rocks are suppos'd under the Sands certainly horizondal beds of Rocks as all must have then have been are not liable to the Suns penetration at least by any perceivable Heat and indeed let the nature of it be what it might it comes much to the same thing and every Man who has us'd himself underground knows how little the Sun has to do with its Heat there Now tho the continued Equinox Heat then suppos'd may seem to aggravate the matter there must have been at least a vicissitude of days and nights and those still of equal length so that the Earth would be always cool'd in the night as well as heated in the day Moreover tho the Author supposes his Antediluvian Rivers to terminate as they came to the parts on each side the Torrid Zone being partly exhal'd by the Sun and partly absorpt in the Sands yet their waters must necessarily have pass'd in the Sands under Ground through the parts of the Torrid Zone which would soon fill up any clefts there made by the Sun I say the Waters must have pass'd so because his Antediluvian Earth must have been porous to percolate waters to all parts otherwise its impossible the Inhabitants in the temperate Zones should have been supply'd with waters to serve their necessary uses by Wells for no Man can indulge Fancy so far as to think the Antediluvian Rivers could have been so thick and near enough each other to afford a convenient supply for the Inhabitants of all the parts of the habitable Earth Men think it now very burthensom to fetch water a mile or two as in some places they are forc'd to do by their Situation remote from Waters and I hope it will not be said that the Rivers were then within a mile or two or ten or hundreds sometimes of each other As to the Comparisons brought in by the Author of the Aeolipile and the Egg which are broken when the moisture within them is rarified and turn'd into vapours by the heat of the fire I answer that when it shall appear to us that the Sun could cause an Heat in the waters of the Abyss proportional to what the others have when broken we may consider more of it mean while such an effect is so far from falling within my Conception that I look upon it in Nature impossible And as to the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Mundane Egg 's breaking I shall consider it in the second Book tho I may so far take notice of it here that whereas the Author here intimates as tho the Ancients by mentioning the Mundane Egg 's breaking referr'd to a Deluge its being caus'd that way the contrary is manifest to us for we know it was a general Opinion amongst the Ancients that the World had been renewed by many Deluges and Conflagrations whereas if one Deluge had been caus'd by such a disruption of the Earth any second or third Deluge had been impossible But what is most urg'd is that the generality of Earthquakes arise from like Causes and often end in a like effect viz. a partial Deluge or Inundation of the Place or Country where they happen To this I answer that tho some Philosophers assign the Causes of Earthquakes after this manner viz. That the strugling of Vapours rais'd and rarify'd by the Sun in the Earth sometimes cause a Disruption the Earth thereupon subsiding into Caverns whence Waters flow forth c. yet it would be hard to expect that Men should generally so far acquiesce in this Cause as to allow it a fair ground to build an Hypothesis of this weighl upon When as a great if not the greatest part of Philosophers assign other Causes for Earthquakes and those perhaps more probable Some will have Earthquakes to be caus'd only by certain Conjunctions of the Planets some by the Motion of Comets near the Earth others by subterraneous Fires or Ferments which truly produce Heats and Vapors within the Earth the Sun having nothing to do in it more than by a remote and general Causality others will have them produc'd by the Motion of subterraneous Waters others again by certain Moulderings or Founderings in certain Caverns of the Earth and other Causes are assign'd for them Lastly When the Author comes to the main Difficulty as he calls it viz. The finding of Waters sufficient to make an universal Deluge which after some time should so return into its Channels that the Earth should become again habitable both which he says are as easily effected according to his Explication set down before by me as they are impossible any other way I confess I greatly admire at this his Assertion and the Explanation he gives for those Effects The first thing we should have expected from the Author in reference to this Point is that he should have signified to us of what Depth he supposes his Abysse to have been and what Thickness he allows to his Orb of Earth for unless we will reason by rote it must be
upon a due consideration of these things that we must conclude of what Effects could follow upon the suppos'd disruption in reference to a Deluge and the forming of the present Earth as he will have it thence and indeed if any Person proposes a Theory or an Hypothesis and the Propositions he advances to build his Doctrine upon be not either self-evident or demonstrated by him the first thing he ought to do is to lay down his Postulata that a Man may clearly see how he adjusts his Reasonings upon them But to talk of a Body to be drown'd and not to give us the Dimensions of the Body and of the Water to effect it seems to me to have neither top nor bottom in it and no more than to say such a thing must be done but God Almighty knows how We find the Author has been diligent enough in shewing what Quantities of Waters would be required to make a Deluge where he writes against the Opinions of others and it seems but Justice that he should have been as careful in setting down what Quantities would be requisit according to his own He saw there was no proper way to refute their Opinion but by a particular Examination of what Quantities of Waters would be requisite to make a Deluge according as they fancy'd it and then to shew that if such a Quantity of Waters were once brought on the Earth it would be impossible for the Earth to get rid of them again so as to make an habitable World And if he would help us to conceive how a Deluge should happen and the present Phoenomena of the Earth be solv'd consequentially to it I see not why he should be backward to assign us some possible Proportions of his Orbs of Earth and Waters in order to it unless which I cannot think he had rather involve Men in erroneous Thoughts by offering only unlimited Generals and make them fancy a possibility where there is none It 's the business of Philosophy to possess us with clear and explicit Notions of things and not to imbroil us in such as are confus'd and obscure I may allow what the Author says in his Answer to Mr. Warren That when the Nature of a thing admits a Latitude the original Quantity is left to be determin'd by the Effects and the Hypothesis stands good if neither any thing antecedent nor any present Phoenomena can be alledg'd against it But I cannot see that the Nature of this thing admits of a Latitude so that the present Phoenomena of the Earth may not be alledg'd against it And I believe if Cartes had suppos'd a Deluge to have been caus'd as the Author does on the Disruption of his Earth whereas he supposes only the Rise of Mountains a Sea and the like by it the Conceptions of which may admit of a Latitude in some more tolerable way but all Men would have justly expected he should have assign'd Proportions to his Orbs and I am so far from thinking that any Latitude assignable to Proportions of such Orbs can be here admitted that I am of opinion when any Man shall assign any Proportion whatsoever to an Abysse Orb for causing a Deluge as the Author proposes I shall always be ready to shew him either his Abysse Orb to be so shallow that the Hypothesis cannot swim in it or so deep that it must drown in it Now tho the Author has not assign'd particular Proportions to his Orbs as it might have been wisht yet he has offer'd some Suggestions by which we may guess what he would be at concerning them What therefore I have gather'd from him in disperst Notions in his Work in reference to those Proportions is as follows First He tells us in his first Book p. 77. and p. 84. and again p. 127. That all the Waters which were contained in the great Abysse are now contained in the Sea Channel and the Caverns of the Earth Secondly In this same Book p. 10. he computes the Sea to cover half the Globe of the Earth and that taking one part of the Sea with another it makes a quarter of a Mile depth throughout Thirdly In this same Book p. 15. he says that if the Earth should disgorge all the Waters it has in its Bowels it would not amount to above half an Ocean From these three Assertions we find that the great Abysse which he supposes for causing a Deluge must have contain'd only an Orb of Waters not a quarter of a Mile depth as it was couch'd on the Face of the first ediment of the Chaos which is suppos'd by him to be of a ponderous compact Substance and not containing Waters within it And so much for the Proportion of his Abysse As to the Thickness he allows to his Orb of Earth I gather it from him as follows First In his Second Book p. 273. he says that the whole primaeval Earth in which the Seat of Paradise was was really seated much higher than the present Earth and may be reasonably suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of our Mountains are now Secondly He has suppos'd in this First Book p. 11. that some of the Mediterranean Mountains taken with the general Acclivity of the Earth from the level of the Sea make two Miles in height above the said level or at least he does not there except against this Computation as he has occasion to mention it tho for his satisfaction I shall state also other Proportions to his Earth beneath to see what will follow upon it and I believe all learned Men will allow this Proportion To this I must add that tho he has not nam'd what depth he allows to the Sea I must conclude that he allows it two Miles deep as learned Men generally judg it to be where he supposes his Abysse to end part of the first Sediment of the Chaos receiving the Waters of the Sea upon it And thus we find from the top of the highest Mountains to the bottom of the suppos'd Abysse in the deepest parts of the Sea we have four Miles as we may say in view or at least agreed to by our Author and all learned Men and that whereas he allows near a quarter of a Mile to the depth of his Abysse as I have shewn before so his Orb of Earth must have been at least three Miles and three quarters in thickness All these things being thus establish'd let us now consider how a Deluge could be hence made according to the Description of Moses If I should but present a Scheme here according to those Proportions allowing a quarter of a Mile to the Abysse Orb and three Miles and three quarters to the Orb of Earth I believe any Man at first looking on it as to any Deluge to be thence caus'd must cry out Impossibility The Abysse Orb being but the twelfth part of the other without counting what must additionally accrue to the Orb of Earth from its much larger Circumference
must follow that no Proportion can be assign'd to an Orb of Earth but about two Miles in depth Now we find according to these Proportions which are the only Proportions assignable to the two Orbs that the Abysse-Orb is but a ninth part of the other a Proportion no way answering such an Effect as a Deluge and the forming of the present Earth which could not possibly thence ensue Thus I have been forc't to apply Arguments several ways and to make a large Discourse on a Point which if the Hypothesis had been clearly stated I might have answered in a few Lines And now I think no more need be said the whole Contents of the Book falling of course only as the Author has said in some part of his Work That he conceives what he has advanc'd may at least serve to open the Inventions of some other Men so possibly some part of what I shall deliver in the sequel may conduce to the same end If the Author does suppose that at the time of the Disruption of his Orb of Earth there was an Orb of Air or Vapours betwixt it and his Abysse-Orb rais'd there by the constant Action of the Sun on the Abysse in the later Ages of the Antediluvian World as in some places of his Works he seems to intimate I think he ought to have represented such an Air-Orb in his Scheme of the Disruption of his Orb of Earth p. 135. which he has not done and therefore my preceding Arguments have not related to any such Air-orb But if he pleases to be plain in the matter and fairly tells us if he supposes any such Air-orb how thick he supposes it and what thickness he allows to his other Orbs I do here assure him I shall always be ready either to shew him the impossibility of a Deluge its being caus'd that way so that the Earth should be afterwards habitable or freely to own that he has represented the Possibility of a thing to me which upon long thinking hitherto I cannot conceive so to have been CHAP. VII and VIII IN the seventh Chapter the Author endeavours to make out by Argument and from History and particularly by some passages in the Scriptures that the Explication he has given of an universal Deluge is not an Idea only but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth and the true Explication of Noah's Flood And in the 8th Chapter he endeavours particularly to explain Noah's Flood in the material parts and circumstances of it according to his preceding Theory and concludes this Chapter with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be look'd upon as an effect of an ordinary Providence and how far of an extraordinary I think it plain enough by what I have set forth in the foregoing Chapter that nothing contain'd in these Chapters can be of any force wherefore I shall pass them by only taking notice of what the Author says concerning an Ordinary or Extraordinary Providence in reference to the Deluge for performing which he will not have the Waters to have been created or otherwise miraculously brought on the Earth but allows as there was an extraordinary Providence in the Formation or Composition of the first Earth so there was also in the dissolution of it and thinks it had been impossible for the Ark to have subsisted on the raging Abyss for the preservation of Noah and his Family without a miraculous hand of Providence to take care of them And concludes that writing a Theory of the Deluge as he does he is to exhibit a series of Causes whereby it may be made intelligible or to shew the proxim natural Causes of it Now as for any natural Causes to be found for the Deluge the learned Johannes Picus falling foul with Astrologers says thus Astrologers ascribe Noah's Flood as well as all other Miracles mention'd in the Scriptures to their Constellations in which thing doubtless they are madder than those who deny any such things to have been because they believe them as they are related and nevertheless effected by natural Causes when no greater madness can be imagin'd than to think that any thing is done by Natures power above Nature it self this being demonstrably so because nothing is more repugnant to Nature than that it should attempt its own destruction wherefore it would never bring that Injury on its self that it could not free it self from by its Power And if it could not be according to the course of Nature that the Waters exceeding the Mountains tops fifteen Cubits Noah with his Cargo in the Ark should be free from Shipwrack twelve months so it was not Natures purpose to drown the whole Earth with an Inundation of Waters to the destruction of all living Creatures He adds also particularly against Astrologers who will have the Stars to be Signs at least if not the causes of such effects as follows The course of natural things is so limited by God according to the Order he has establisht and so disjoyn'd from those things which are preternaturally done by the divine Power and Will that if all these were taken away there would be nothing wanting nor nothing abounding in Nature Wherefore as by the Order establisht by God natural things are signified by natural Signs and miraculous things by antecedent Miracles so Noah being divinely inspir'd and to be preserv'd by the divine Power signified to the World that an universal Deluge was to come by a Miracle of the divine Justice and he exemplifies the usual proceedings of Providence in other instances of the same kind And indeed we have reason to think that if there had been any natural Causes for the Deluge some of the learned Persons then in being at least upon Noah's warning would have perceiv'd some growing dispositions in the Heavens and Earth toward such an effect and not have suffer'd themselves to have been all surpriz'd when it came as the Scriptures represent to us they were Again since the ten Plagues of Egypt were miraculous which were to teach only one obdurate King that there was a God who commanded all things certainly when that God pleas'd to execute his vengeance on a World consummate in sin he would do it in an extraordinary and supernatural manner that Posterity should have no Tergiversation but be forc'd to own that Divine controling Power being certified of this act surpassing all natural Causes whatsoever And whereas the Author says that he writing a Theory of the Deluge is to shew the proxim natural Causes of it It will be answered that when an effect is thus miraculously wrought by an arbitrary determination of the most remote Cause we must not look after proxim Causes in Nature for it Effects being only accountable from any second or proxim natural Causes when things are left to Gods ordinary Concourse Not but God often uses second Causes in working Miracles but then he raises that natural Power otherwise belonging to them to an height far transcending Nature so
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
never attain'd unless they had liv'd at least six hundred years the great Year being accomplisht by that Revolution As for Coelestial Causes the boldest Assertor I find is Petrus Apponensis who says we must by no means envy those of the first Age for having liv'd a longer Series of years than us the disposition of the Heav'ns being by Nature more benign and propitious to them for then there were two Animal Circles together co-operating one in the ninth Sphere and the other in the eighth where the Firmament is being so dispos'd that Aries answered diametrically to Aries Taurus to Taurus Gemini to Gemini c. They so fortifying the Celestial Influences that Herbs Roots standing Corn and Fruits grew then much more wholesom than since that Society through a long motion being dissolv'd whence the whole Inferiour World began to grow diseas'd and decay For Sublunary Causes first we may allow as the Author does that the Stamina or Principles of Life of the Antediluvians were much stronger than Men have at present by which they had a more vigorous natural Constitution Secondly we may allow them to have been better circumstantiated and regulated as to the Six Non-Natural things as first that their Atmosphere being throwly impregnated with balsamick Particles arising from that pure primigenial Soil the Celestial Influences had a more kindly Co-operation with them forming an Air far transcending ours now in the healthiest part of the Earth for prolonging Life and in this the Author is free to expatiate as he pleases Secondly as to their Dyet it 's conceiv'd that the Antediluvian Soil being excellently temper'd brought forth better and more wholsome Fruits than are since the Deluge that it has been tainted with the Saltness of the Sea and that the Fountain Waters were also then more wholsom and that those Fathers were endued with a greater Knowledg to discern what was good and bad for them and observ'd a greater Temperance than is now us'd Thirdly it 's conceiv'd that if Man had not so many extrinsical Causes as Pleasures domestick and publick Cares and other Troubles to discompose him he might live a much longer Age in which it 's thought the Antients were not so much concern'd leading a more sedate and calm Life And so as to the other Non-Natural things they may be conceiv'd to have govern'd themselves better in them than Men do now And upon the whole it may be said that tho we may not ascribe the Antediluvian Longaevity to any one of these sublunary Causes singly yet taken altogether they may be lookt upon as competent Causes for it But to go about to alter the Sun's Course or the Earth's Posture to it to make it out I believe it 's what will never pass among learned Men. Having assign'd such Causes as perhaps by some may be thought tolerably plausible for the Antediluvian Longaevity in the last place I shall give my opinion of the matter which is that I look upon the long Lives of the Patriarchs to have been from a particular Providence I cannot say it was for the reason assign'd by Austin that the first World by a few might be peopl'd in a short time for on that account long Life seems as necessary to others as to the Patriarchs besides that each of the Patriarchs as far as we find by Scripture spent many Years as Adam above an Hundred others above an Hundred and Eighty before they got Children whereas before that time they might have got Children enough to have peopled many Countries tho as Rabbi Gedalia says according to the opinion of many Jewish Doctors the Patriarchs did not live so long before they had Children as the Scripture speaks of but that it makes mention of those only from whom they receiv'd the Tradition not taking notice of many others whom there was no necessity of medling withal But I am of the opinion of that Adept Philosopher who in his late Answer to the learned Dr. Dickinson affirms long Life to have been granted the Patriarchs from a particular Providence that they might the better learn and propagate Arts and Sciences and convey down with more Certainty the Tradition of the Creation the Fall of Man God's Judgment upon him and the Hope of his Redemption c. and I know not why we should make a Difficulty of admitting a particular Providence when such particular Designs of Providence are to be carried on by it I reject therefore Lunar Years with the Author tho as to the Testimony he quotes from Josephus saying that the Historians of all Nations both Greeks and Barbarians ascribe Longaevity to the first Inhabitants of the Earth many of the Authors whom he names averring them to have liv'd a Thousand Years I value it not and much doubt whether the Author himself gives credit to those Histories For either they relate to Antediluvian or Postdiluvian Times if to the former I know no colour of Reason we have for relying on any thing as Authentick deliver'd by Greeks or Barbarians concerning those times If to the latter I cannot think the Author believes any Man to have liv'd a Thousand Years since the Deluge So we find that Pliny considering what many of the Greeks and others had writ concerning the length of some Mens Lives plainly says they have writ Fables instead of true Histories through their Ignorance of the various acceptation of Years and Ages an Age signifying with some Thirty Years with others only One Year and with others an Hundred Years And the space of a Year being determin'd by some by one Revolution of the Moon by others it 's made Trimestrial and by others to consist of Six Months And Father Simon tells us It 's certain that even the antient Jews not finding in their Histories Genealogies enough to fill up the time made one single Person to live many Ages whence there is nothing more common in their Histories than these long liv'd Men so that we ought not over easily to give belief to Jewish Histories which make their Doctors survive till such a time as they can find another to joyn him Nay a great many of the Jewish Doctors who have so great a Veneration for the Scriptures are so far from acquiescing in what Josephus urges from the Greek and Barbarian Tradition that they have affirm'd as Father Simon tells us the Patriarchs to have liv'd no longer than other Men and that the Holy Scripture makes only mention of the Head of a Family to whom it immediately joyns the last of the same Family without taking notice of those who have been betwixt both those Doctors believing that when any Head of a Family had ordain'd certain Laws and Methods of living to the Family he was made to live till the last of the Family who had observ'd those Laws were dead so that he is suppos'd to have liv'd all this while in his Family And I doubt that all Men who are not content to have recourse to
of the Earth be consider'd according to Gravity or Magnetism Aristotle who consider'd it according to the former says that all the Particles of the Earth have a natural Gravity which carries them towards the midst or Center whence a spherical Figure of it must be caus'd as he explains at large and concludes that the Figure of the Earth must therefore be Spherical or naturally Spherical and that every thing must be said to be such as it uses to be or is by Nature and not what it may be by force or preternaturally and in a violent state The same may be said of the Earth's Figure if it be consider'd according to Magnetism the Experiment of the Terrella according to the various Inclinations of the Needle to it shewing the Earth to be Spherical And whereas the Author says that Circumnavigation the appearing and Occultation of Mountains and Towers to Saylors as also the Stars and the like prove indeed the Earth not to be plain but convex but does not plainly prove what that Convexity is whether Spherical or Oval We find that Clavius was of a contrary Opinion he thinking to have well prov'd the Spherical Figure of the Earth if measur'd either from East to West or from North to South by shewing that if a Man keeping the same Meridian passes from North to South there is that proportion still observ'd in the decrease of the elevation of the Pole which can only agree to a spherical Figure and so if any Man travels from East to West betwixt two Parallels he may still observe that to a City fifteen degrees more Easterly than another the Sun always rises and sets an hour sooner or later than to the other which anticipation of the rising and setting of the Sun could not keep the said proportion unless we give the Earth a spherical Figure As to the third Difficulty that the Author finds and the Explanation he endeavours to give of it viz. What Issue the Rivers would have when they were come to the parts near the Torrid Zone to which he says That then they would be divided into many Branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drank up by the dry sandy Earth This seems not to me fairly to account for the Rivers Issue It 's true we have now accounts of some Rivers absorpt in the Sands but the Waters so absorpt or which any where pass into the Earth have their Issue again at some other place either passing into the Sea or emerging again on the Land but what became of those Antediluvian Waters which must have been in vast quantities absorpt in the Sands Did the Circumgyration of the Earth carry them back again under ground upon an Ascent toward the Poles Or did they sink into the Abysse This must have been full before for many Ages till the Sun had cloven the Earth and drawn out great quantities of the Abysse Waters and the other way of their Issue seems not to me conceivable But I shall insist no farther on this matter The Author in the last place urges that the Rainbow set in the Clouds after the Deluge makes out that the Antediluvian Heav'ns were of a different Constitution from ours the Rainbow having not been seen in the Clouds before Now concerning the Rainbow mention'd Gen. 9. many have said many things but the most natural Interpretation of it seems to me to be thus We find in the foregoing Chapter when Noah and his Family by Gods Command were come forth of the Ark and that Noah had rais'd an Altar and sacrific'd to God God accepting his Sacrifice assur'd him that he would no more destroy every living Soul as he had done but that Seed-time and Harvest Cold and Heat Summer and Winter Night and Day should not cease or should continue They having been interrupted for a years time before And in the 9th Chapter after having bless'd Noah and his Sons he made a Covenant with them against any future Deluge and to comfort them gave them the Rainbow as a present sign of the Air 's setling in its wonted way the Seasons which he had mention'd before to Noah being to succeed in Course And the Rainbow thus appearing after the Deluge carried somewhat new in it as the Author says a Sign ought to have done because it had not been seen for a year before and in its nature appearing after Rains it betokens fair Weather as appearing after fair Weather it betokens Rains Whereas the Author says he does not look upon the Rainbow as a voluntary Sign and by divine Institution but that it signified naturally and by Connection with the effect importing that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water This seems to me without any ground I agree with him so far that the Rainbow signified naturally and by Connection with the effect because appearing after Rains it betokens a remission of the moisture and consequently fair Weather and this with Gods Promise to Noah and his seeing the Waters retir'd from the Earth I think was sufficient for Noahs satisfaction he having had experience that God was Master of his Word before when he had reveal'd to him that he would bring a Deluge on the Earth But to say that the appearance of the Rainbow imported the state of Nature to be so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water this will not be allow'd for if the Deluge was miraculously caus'd as I conceive it to have been what natural sign could foreshew its coming or no return of it Wherefore in this respect I look upon it to be only a voluntary Sign and by divine Institution And we know some have been so far from thinking the Rainbow to denote a change of Air towards a Conflagration that they plainly say it denotes a Dominion of moisture in the Air and that on this account it will not appear forty years before the Conflagration happens Neither do I believe that Noah or perhaps any Man since him besides the Author could find by any natural signality in the Rainbow that a Deluge should ne'r return Indeed as the Author says if Noah had never seen a Rainbow before on its first appearance it could not but have made a lively Impression upon him for his assurance for its probable it would have rais'd a stupor in him and he would have lookt upon it as a Miracle wrought by God for his satisfaction whereas the Rules of Providence are otherwise God never giving a miraculous Sign but of a miraculous Effect which the preservation of the Earth from a second Deluge was not to be but only the Earth left to itself with those second Causes that attend it for its own preservation And those instances of Signs which the Author has quoted from the Scriptures are miraculous Signs of
miraculous Effects and therefore of another nature from this here under Consideration Again it s well known that many Institutions in the Law of Moses were made directly in opposition to certain Customs among the Gentils Now whereas Iris among the Gentils was made generally the Messenger of Discord whence it was call'd Iris quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why may it not be thought that in opposition to this which might have been deriv'd down from the corrupt Antediluvian times God would have the Rainbow to be his sign of Love and Concord it signifying in its Nature indifferently Rains and fair Weather as Pliny says As to the existence of the Rainbow before the Flood certainly all the Gentils were of that Opinion Juno must have been an Antediluvian Goddess who was never without her Nymph Iris she being the most diligent Attendant she had alway standing ready at her Elbow and more officiously serviceable to her than the other thirteen Nymphs that belong'd to her among other services she is said to have made Juno's Bed and was represented with Wings and a Robe of divers Colours half tuckt up to shew her readiness to obey the Commands of her Mistris on all occasions The two predominant Colours of her Robes were blew and red denoting the two great destructions of the World the blew that which happen'd by the Waters at the Deluge and the Red the general Conflagration to succeed by Fire so that the Rainbow carries a mixt signality And indeed the antient Philosophers might properly enough make her the Messenger of Discord she carrying the Types of those two contrary Elements Fire and Water and God might make her his Messenger of Peace he controuling and directing all natural Powers and re-establishing a Concord betwixt those two contrary Elements whereof she carries the Types in those Colours she bears I may note in the last place that Father Simon censures Luther of Ignorance in the style and symbolical sense of the Scriptures for saying that there was no Rainbow before the Deluge and that God created it for those very Reasons set down Gen. 9. But though there may be a known symbolical sense contain'd under the Rainbow which may far more require our attention than the Symbol it self yet I shall not here take upon me to determine how far Luther may stand affected by that Censure As for what the Author urges from the Passage of St. Peter viz. That the Antediluvian Heav'ns had a different Constitution from ours containing only watery Meteors I do not find he makes out that there were more of those watry Meteors in the Air then than there are now so that a Deluge should be thence particularly caus'd on which account St. Peter intimates that different Disposition to have been and when the Author has said all he can of it he plainly concludes in his Latin Copy That he cannot find or discover by Reason whence that Glut of Waters rose at that time or wherefore after fifteen Ages after the World was made that Immense Glut of Waters gather'd together in the Air discharg'd itself on the Earth it might have been he says from supernatural Causes And in his Answer to Mr. Warren he says the Rains that made the Flood were extraordinary and out of the Course of Nature And what is this in effect but to own that the Deluge is not explicable by humane Reason and that Miracles are to be allow'd in it but they must be the Authors own way and not as others have said which perhaps by many may be interpreted to carry more of Humour than Reason CHAP. VI. THIS Chapter contains only a review of what the Author has said concerning the Primitive Earth with a more full survey of the state of the first World Natural and Civil and the Comparison of it with the present World so that here is little new wherefore I shall note only the following Passage where the Author says I cannot easily imagine that the sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first immediately from the Beginning of the World To this we may reply That if the sense of one Man may be oppos'd against that of another Lucan seems of a contrary Opinion where he says Syrtes vel primam mundo natura figuram Quum daret in medio pelagi terraeque reliquit When Nature fram'd the World at its first birth It left the Quicksands 'twixt the Sea and Earth CHAP. VII HERE the Author comes to the main Point to be consider'd in this Book viz. the Seat of Paradise and says that its Place cannot be determin'd by the Theory only nor from Scripture only and then gives us the sense of Antiquity concerning it as to the Jews the Heathens and especially the Christian Fathers shewing that they generally place it out of this Continent in the Southern Hemisphere He declares that considering the two Hemispheres according to his Theory he sees no Natural Reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in the other and that it must rather have depended on the Will of God and the series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth than on any natural incapacity in one of those Regions more than in another for planting in it that Garden Neither do the Scriptures determine where the place was As to Antiquity he says the Jews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere but under the Equinoctial because they suppos'd the Days and Nights to have been always equal in Paradise Among the ancient Heathens Poets and Philosophers he finds they had several Paradises on the Earth which they generally if not all of them place without or beyond this Continent in the Ocean or beyond it or in another Orb or Hemisphere as the Gardens of the Hesperides the fortunate Islands the Elysian Fields Ogygia Toprabane as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus and the like As to Christian Antiquity or the Judgment or Tradition of the Fathers in this Argument he tells us that the Grand Point disputed amongst them was Whether Paradise were Corporeal or Intellectual only and Allegorical Then of those that thought it Corporeal some plac'd it high in the Air some inaccessible by Desarts and Mountains and many beyond the Ocean or in another World but nam'd no particular Place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of it and upon the whole he brings it to this Conclusion that tho their Opinions are differently exprest they generally concenter in this that the Southern Hemisphere beyond the Aequinoctial was the Seat of Paradise And this Notion of another World or Earth beyond the Torrid Zone he says he finds among Heathen Authors as well as Christian and that those who say Paradise was beyond the Ocean mean the same for that they suppos'd the Ocean to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks the Sun and Planets being there cool'd and nourisht by its moisture And having quoted many of the Fathers
as being the upper Orb. The Author ascribes the cause of the Deluge to the Violence of the Commotion of the Abysse upon the fall of the Earth into it and to represent to us what this Commotion must be he supposes a Stone of a vast weight carried up a Mile or two in the Air and let fall and tells us to what a vast height Waters must then be conceiv'd to fly But I cannot allow this Instance to be fairly brought in If a Painter be to draw a Ceiling-Piece in a Room of an high roof we may allow him to draw the Picture of a Man there suppose much bigger than the natural that it might deceive our Eye to its advantage when viewing it at that distance it takes it in a proportion to the Life But to suppose a Rock an Island or a Continent as he says two Miles high in the Air and to conceive how high Waters would be thrown upon their fall into the Sea why shall this be done to deceive our Reason When the Antediluvian Earth is suppos'd before not to have been suspended in the Air but couch'd close on the Face of the Abysse as is represented by him in his Scheme of the disruption of the Earth Fig. I. p. 135. it being quite a different thing for a Body couch'd on the Face of Waters to subside in them and for it to fall into them from an height Again when part of the Orb of Earth subsided into the Abysse there was no room for the Waters of the Abysse to diverge whereas when any Weight is thrown into a River or the open Sea the Waters may fly off every way And indeed I think it manifest enough that upon the subsiding of any part of such an Orb of Earth in a manner all the Waters that could rise thereupon upon must have been contain'd either in the Chasms or hollow places of its broken parts and that never any could come to make a Deluge on the higher parts of the Earth Besides it 's absolutely contrary to Moses's Narration to make a Deluge by such flights of Water in the Air Moses telling us how the Waters rose and fell gradually and that they exceeded the highest Mountains fifteen Cubits the Author's Explication of it being so forc'd and unnatural that perhaps in so plain a Text it was not fit to be put upon so great a Prophet But to put the matter beyond dispute supposing the Proportions before laid down to the Orbs of the Abysse and the Earth we find a Mile and three quarters of the Orb of Earth missing for if the Sea be allow'd but two Miles in depth as learned Men generally judg it to be and that the Abysse there ends on the first Sediment of the Chaos as the Author supposes we have then in Nature but as much Earth as will make an Orb of two Miles in thickness as I shall shew beneath and what then is become of the other Mile and three quarters Earth The next thing we have to consider is this notwithstanding all the Suppositions of the Author before set down when we come to view the Schemes he has given in his Book we find that contrary to his said Suppositions in all of them he has represented his Abysse-Orb thicker than his Orb of Earth so that counting the more large extent of the Orb of Earth as being the upper Orb and the thickness of the Abysse Orb which lies under it we may judg them to be of equal contents in their Dimensions as you may see in the Scheme before given you And I believe a Reader who should peruse his Book cursorily not finding the Proportions of his two Orbs clearly stated and perhaps not minding the Suppositions before set down which the Author was forct by the necessity of the Argument to make on several occasions when he came to view this Scheme of his or the others would have concluded that the Author really suppos'd his two Orbs of the Proportions he here represents as indeed it is but a blind Put upon our Eye as well as our Reason if he did not Now tho I must declare I cannot comprehend how this can stand with the Author's Suppositions as I conceive they are before set down I am content to suppose as all his Schemes seem to import that the Orbs of the Earth and of the Abysse were in their Contents of equal Dimensions and we shall examin what thereupon could follow in order to a Deluge I suppose then that the Antediluvian Earth contain'd an Orb of two Miles deep or as much as would make two Miles deep if it were coucht on the bottom of the Abysse as it then was on the surface of it and that the Orb of the Abysse contain'd two Miles in depth likewise for I suppose here with the Author as before that the two Orbs together made four Miles in height This being suppos'd when the Earth broke and made a Deluge I ask what became of the two Miles Water The Author tells us that the Sea contains a quarter of a Mile depth in Water over half the Globe of the Earth and says that if the Earth should disgorge all the Waters it has besides in its Bowels it would not make half an Ocean and he tells us again and again that all the Waters of the Abysse are contain'd in the Sea and in the Caverns of the Earth What then is become of the other Mile and three quaters Water Having thus demonstratively refuted as I conceive the Author's whole Hypothesis both according to the Proportions he seems to have given to his Orbs in his Schemes or to have otherwise intimated them to have been in his Work I shall urge the matter a little farther and plainly shew it impossible either for the Author or any Man else to assign any Proportions whatsoever to such Orbs that a Deluge and the Form of the present Earth should be thence caus'd supposing only as the Learned generally do that the Sea is two Miles deep in its deepest part where the Author will have his Abysse to end on the first Sediment of the Chaos For then I say first I conceive Men will generally agree with what the Author has before laid down viz. That there is in Nature but Water enough to make an Orb of a quarter of a Mile depth on the first Sediment of the Chaos And secondly As to the Proportion which must be allow'd to the Orb of Earth it 's manifest to us that since it 's two Miles from the level of the Sea to the deepest part of it and since it 's all Earth in all parts of the Globe to that depth except what the Waters in the Sea and in the Caverns of the Earth do amount to which is but enough to make an Orb but of a quarter of a Mile depth round the Earth a good part of which Orb will also be countervail'd by that part of the Earth which is above the level of the Sea it