gave us notice of them And then if we turn our Eyes from the Hills down to the pleasant Valleys below what variety do we there discern of great Plains and Fields chequered with divers colours and adorned with several beautiful Flowers and fruitful Trees All which we are deprived of in his smooth spherical Earth where we find all to be of one even uniform shape without any variety to raise up our minds to the contemplation of God's Greatness and Goodness or to invite us to move a foot from our own Habitation to see the rest of the World all being but one and the same a smooth Earth without any Sea which gives occasion to men of the boldest and noblest Invention that is in the World when in a small Vessel they lanch out into a boundless Ocean many thousands of miles together seeking out new and unknown Countries Really I should grow an extream dull Creature to be confined to such a smooth uniform Habitation and should desire to be transplanted into this misshapen irregular World he finds us in where we have the variety of delightful motions and prospects both by Sea and Land Now if we further consider That from Moses and several other Writers of Scripture it appears that God created this World in that form and fashion as now it is which this Man hath so boldly called Rude and Deformed Will not he as I said before be strangely confounded at this But I shall not at present disorder him in the Fabrick of his new World as he sets it forth in his Theory IV. In the first place he tells us that all originally proceeded from a Chaos and saith All the Antients were of Opinion that such a thing there was from whence the World did arise I desire to know whom he means by those Antients whether Heathens or Christians If Heathens Is he then to learn from them how the World was made Sure all Christians take Moses to be the onely true Historiographer for the Worlds Creation and are no way concerned with the several vain opinions of Heathen Poets or Philosophers but thank God we have a better light to guide us than those Ignes fatui Yet I desire him to tell us whether all the ancient Heathens were of this opinion sure not all but very different among themselves and some said the World was made of Fire some of Water some of Atoms and I know not what some that it was never made but eternal And therefore we shall conclude this Chaos especially in such a manner as he describes it to be an Idea framed out of his own brain and reject it as we do Epicurus's Atoms We desire him then to declare unto us who was the framer of his Chaos for he doth not plainly express whether he thinks his Chaos was the workmanship of God or no or when it had beginning And if he saith that God created it methinks he should have thought such a rude confused Chaos far more improper and unbecoming Gods perfection than this rude World we live in but he finds fault with as unbecoming the perfection of God for God doubtless could as easily have made the Heavens and the Earth in a perfect form as leave them to his Chaos to produce I see he is strangely in love with Nature and Natural Productions and God must produce only a rude fluid Mass and from thence Nature must work it out in her orderly way into delicate Heavens and Earth 5. But where doth he find that God created this Chaos He saith Moses mentions it in his description of the Creation Let us then look into Moses and fee how he relates the framing of this mighty World Moses saith Gen. 1. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the Deep Here we find within the time of one day the Heavens and the Earth and the Waters above the Earth all framed But our Philosopher tells us of a strange Chaos to be in the beginning such a one as came not to the consistency of Earth in many days or rather in many years I know not how many we find not a word in Scripture of any such thing Yes saith he Moses doth affirm such a thing in saying The earth was void and without form If the earth was without form there was then an Earth the first day though without form But this Chaos was a confused mass of several parts intermingled together which came not to the confistency of earth in a long time as I said before so that this is wholly contrary to Moses's description which saith both Heaven and Earth were created the first day firm solid earth and farther tells us how that the earth though rude the first day was clothed with Grass Herbs and Trees the third day which more fully confutes his fluid intermingled mass of all things But let us proceed 6. He tells us Pag. 53. That by the Chaos he understands the matter of the Earth and Heavens without Form or Order intermingled in a fiuid Mass wherein are the materials and ingredients of all Bodies Earth Water Fire Air yea and Oyl also all confused and mixt together And of these were composed the Earth with all its Creatures Fishes Fowls and Beasts I have often heard of four Elements whereof all things are framed but I never heard of this fifth Element of Oyl before which in framing his Earth is the principal for it seems it was composed mainly of that But he saith it was not Oyl but of an Oyly substance as Cream may be said to be of an oyly or unctuous substance and such this fifth Element was for so I must call it it being neither Earth Water Fire nor Air or else it must arise from somewhat else as Cream doth from Milk and so this must arise from one of the four principal Elements And sure it could not arise from Fire or Air they are of too thin a substance to produce such a thick fat and unctuous matter And for Water that is too barren in it self to produce such a creamy substance The Earth likewise is originally a dry heavy and cold substance very unfit to produce it So that I cannot find out whence it should arise And therefore for ought I see it must be a distinct Element of it self But whencesoever it did arise or whatever it be it is a main principle in his mass of which consists the Fabrick of all his new-found Earth So that here we have the ingredients of all sublunary things whatsoever all intermingled and for ought I find in his Theory all above the Moon also for he doth not tell us of what the Heavens with all those glorious Stars Sun Moon and Planets were composed or when Created or whether Nature had a hand in the framing of them from some other kind of fluid Mass. Surely these things were worth his mentioning for Moses in his
day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly Men. But this they may be sure of that as by the Word of God they were warned then of the Deluge which came upon ungodly Men So now we give you warning that by the same Word of God this World at our Saviours coming shall be destroyed by Fire not only the Earth but the Heavens also shall melt with fervent Heat This is the plain and full meaning of St. Peter's words and this indeed is obvious to any understanding Person at first sight And this is St. Peter's business here to set forth Gods Judgments upon Sin and not the diversity of the old Heavens or Earth from the present for here is nothing mentioning any such diversity or opposition in the former Earth to the present Earth no more than in the former Heavens to the present Heavens where he would have a perfect Antithesis forsooth and a direct opposition between the former Heavens and Earth and the present Heavens and Earth Now let us hear St. Peter's words in the Original Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are willingly or wilfully ignorant that the Heavens were that is Created of old and the Earth situated out of the Water and by the Water but the present Heavens and Earth by the same Word are kept in store against the day of Judgment He doth not say here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This might be an Antithesis but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heavens were Created of old by the word of God and so sure were the present Heavens And for the Earth he saith it was situated out of the Water and by the Water He doth not say the Heavens and the Earth were both so situated but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a participle of the Feminine Gender and Singular number agreeing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth whereas had he meant the Heavens also were so situated he should have used another Gender and the Plural number so that this situation belongs only to the Earth Then follows But the present Heavens and Earth are by the same Word kept in store reserved unto Fire What opposition is here The Heavens and the Earth were Created of old by God But the present Heavens and Earth are by God reserved unto Fire Here is no diversity or opposition experst betwixt the old Heavens and Earth and the new Heavens and Earth but only the diversity or opposition between the two Judgments the one was only of the Earth by Water and the other is to be of both Heavens and Earth by Fire Not one word here of a disposition in the old Heavens to Water and the present Heavens to Fire nor any disposition in the Earth to the one of old or to the other now but that the former Earth was situated out of and by Water and is now reserved unto Fire Let our Theorist if he can shew me how the Heavens or how the Earth is now disposed for Fire I see not a word in St. Peter signifying any such thing tho he with his wonted confidence doth affirm it pag. 233 and say that St. Peter doth formally and expresly tells us that the old Heavens or the Antediluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours and particularly that they were composed or constituted of Water and in the margin sets down 2 Epist. Pet. 3. 5. Now to say that a thing is formally and expresly told us sure you will expect to find that thing in the same formal or very words I pray you now look back upon the very words and see if you can find any such thing there Are there any such particular words there as he affirms that the Heavens of old were composed or constituted of Water Nor of the Earth is it said that it was composed of Water but that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies as well and as usually situated or settled and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of And so the sense runs thus The Earth placed out of the Water and by or in the Water which cannot relate to the Heavens for then the participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should as I said have been in the Plural number Nor can it be truly said that the Heavens are situated out of the Water and by the Water whatever may be said of the Firmament But he doth not use the word Firmament here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heavens which were of old Created by God in the Plural number all the Heavens the highest as well as the lowest VI. S. Peter having thus express'd the diversity of the Judgments he goes on and infers from the former Judgment that as they found by experience That the word of God threatening them with a Deluge came really to pass and all perished So the word of God now threatening them with a Conflagration will assuredly consume them This seventh Verse is a consequence inferred from the first and sixth Verses which were the Antecedent and the fifth Verse is so far from being Superfluous or Redundant as our Theorist would have it that from thence the Apostle takes the Rise of his Argument and begins That by the word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the Water and in the Water Whereby that is by which Waters the World of the ungodly that then was being overflowed with Water perished The Earth standing out of the Water and by the Water those Waters commanded by the word of God overflowed the Earth with the ungodly The Waters which were before miraculously restrained by the Word of God beingnow let loose by the same Word overflowed the world and would do so again were they not restrain'd for there the same disposition or rather situation of the Earth now as was of old but the Word Will or Promise of God is now otherwise than it was of old Whereof I shall speak more by and by The word of God goes along in all this Discourse and is set forth as the only cause of the Deluge of old and the Conflagration to come Which follows in the seventh verse But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same Word are kept in store by no disposition nor any natural cause preparing them for it reserved unto Fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly Men. For their sakes this Judgment is to be then brought upon the Heavens as well as the Earth And so there will be a total end of this World and then will follow as it is v. 13. according to Gods promise new Heavens and a new Earth whether literally or figuratively this Epistle doth not declare Let this Theorist with his strange Confidence declare what he pleases I am ready to declare my Ignorance herein But these Scoffers as they were willingly ignorant and forgetful how the
appear and in many parts of the Land there are by the Sea-Shore great Rocks and Mountains placed which seem to us to stand much above the Sea and therefore 't is said To him that stretcheth out the Earth above the Waters But for this and other Poetical expressions in the Psalms or Job or such like Poetical Sacred Authors I may say in general as he doth pag. 87. at the lower end That they seldom are so determinate and distinct but that they may be interpreted more than one way Wherefore I desire the Reader when he meets with some such expressions to remember what our Theorist himself confesseth and to take the pains to consult some other Interpreters and then he will find the truth of what is here acknowledged These are the most material Scriptures he depends upon which I have mentioned and therefore I will now pass to discourse of his Theory more particularly SECTION II. CONTAINS The Narration of the Deluge I. GOds providential Care of and Favour to Man is very wonderful that he should make poor man who is not able to create or produce and give life to the meanest creatures absolute Lord over them all and not only for his necessity but for his entertainment also and pleasure to dispose of the life of the noblest and best of Creatures at his will and command And besides all this great power and authority given him in this World hath prepared for him a life of eternal happiness in the World to come in the presence and full injoyment of this his great benefactor Yet ungrateful man so degenerated as soon to forget his maker and manifold benefits and at length all flesh had so corrupted his way that the Justice of God resolved to destroy them all by an universal Deluge saving only Noah and his Posterity who had found favour with God by his more righteous Life And from him began a new and righteous Generation but in process of time they also degenerated as far in all sorts of wickedness Yet God having promised unto Noah never to destroy mankind again by another Flood made good his Word and chose unto himself righteous Abraham and his Wife and from their Son and succeeding Generation to sever from the rest of the wicked World a peculiar People that might serve him aright four hundred years together in the Land of Aegypt and when he brought them out from thence into the Land of Canaan with other adjacent Countries which they were to possess and multiply in he gave them several Laws and Ordinances very different from the rest of the World and Moses their chief Captain and Leader inspired by God wrote them all down in five Books beginning at the very Creation of the World and punctually declaring the manner the time and all other circumstances how and when every thing was Created and how Man was made Lord of all He sets down likewise the several Generations of men until the Deluge and as punctually declares how the Flood came upon the whole World and how God preserved Noah and his Sons in an Ark the manner and form of which he exactly sets forth and how God commanded Noah to take into the same Ark some of all the sorts of Creatures upon Earth to preserve them from perishing And so goes on to describe how the Flood came upon all the rest of the World and the Waters encreased by degrees till at length they lifted up the Ark from the Earth and by the Waters still encreasing it was born up fifteen Cubits above the tops of the highest Mountains and how it decreased likewise and the Earth became habitable again and so continues his relation of all the Posterity of Noah till he comes to Abraham and his Generation unto whom at their coming out of Aegypt God gave by this Moses Laws and Ordinances as I said before which was his peculiar favour to the People of Israel As for the rest of the World God suffered all Nations to walk in their own waies Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave them Rain from Heaven and fruitful Seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness as it is Acts 14. 16 17. And he also wrote a Law in their Hearts a Law of gratitude unto his infinite goodness for all these benefits That they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him as it is Acts 17. 27. And he wrote a Law likewise in their hearts for their demeanour and conversation one with another Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them And as their knowledge was but little so God required little at their hands only to observe these Laws written in their hearts And the times of this ignorance God winked at as it is v. 30. And thus both Jews and Gentiles continued until the fulness of time was come that God sent forth his Son into the World a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of his People Israel Then this his Eternal Son manifested the glory of the Father both to Jews and Gentiles and sent Apostles abroad into all the World to Preach the same who kept nothing back that was profitable unto them but declared all the counsel of God as it is Acts 20. 20 and 27. Who can now doubt but that the Son of Righteousness hath so enlightned all the World by himself and his blessed Apostles and taught us all things not only things necessary to our Salvation but all knowledge required to perfection Certainly then no man can think that the infinite goodness of God who hath thus enlightened us with all knowledge to perfection should leave his People unto this day ignorant in the first Principles of Religion even the very Creation of the World and of man with all other Creatures of the Universal Deluge and Noah's preservation in that Deluge and suchlike rudiments which our Children learn in their Minority II. What then shall we say to the man that after several thousand years now in the end of the World steps forth as a new light come into it to shew us how that the whole World has been mistaken unto this day in the true knowledg of the Creation Deluge c. and pretends to deliver to us a new and strange interpretation of Scriptures which neither we nor our Fathers before us ever heard of and by his Philosophy would not only confute all other Philosophers before him but also Christians in their Divinity and would make it as plain unto them as the Sun at Noonday that they have not yet had a right understanding of these things And tho David saith The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work he would be so bold as to tell David that neither these Heavens nor this Earth are the same which they were at the Creation and so continued till the Deluge but quite another thing and therefore neither
the vast quantity of Water which is requisite to make such a Deluge and according to his computation makes up a sum of eight Oceans that is eight times as much Water as all the Seas in the World contain You must suppose this man a rare Hydrographer and can tell us exactly to a fathom the depth of all the Seas in the World not only near the shore but in the main fathomless Ocean nay his skill reaches above the Heavens and can tell you the quantity of Waters there By what Art or Instrument this is computed is best known to himself but not intelligible to any body else But let us hear the rest He then affirms that all the Waters upon or under the Earth together with the Waters above the Firmament would not amount to much above one Ocean so that there would be above six wanting to fill up the Valleys to the Mountain tops and fifteen Cubits upwards You must know this man is a rare Geographer also and hath taken the heighth of every Mountain and the depth of every Valley in the whole World and can tell you what quantity of Water is requisite to fill them up and make an even Sphere with the whole Earth And then concludes That 't is not intelligible from whence so great a quantity of Water should be produced and whither it should be conveyed after the Deluge Well let it be unintelligible Is it a good consequence therefore to say it is Incredible This man professes to believe that God created all this whole World from nothing not onely the Earth but the vast incomprehensible Heavens with Sun and Moon and all the innumerable Stars and believing this could not doubt but God having a mind to overflow this whole Earth could far more easily find Water enough to make such a Flood And should I say he did create Water on this occasion what can he say to confute it Where hath God in Scripture confined himself from any new Creation for ever No where as I know of for to say that God rested the seventh day from all his Work certainly cannot imply that God must never work more John 5. 17. Christ faith My Father worketh hitherto and I work We find in the Gospel our Saviour fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes I may as well say this is unintelligible and consequently Incredible yet no good Christian doubts of the truth And why then might not God multiply the Waters in that Deluge as well as multiply the Loaves in the Gospel Wherefore if we say that the Waters in this great Deluge were multiplied methinks a true Believer should rest satisfied with such an answer for this way of multiplication better satisfies an Objection of his made Pag. 19. That Moses saith the Waters increased by degrees for when our Saviour multiplied the Loaves he did not at once create as many as would satisfie the five thousand but multiplied them by degrees as the Disciples distributed them and when they returned they still found more to distribute And so the Waters by degrees increased and decreased likewise by degrees But saith he What became of all these Waters after the Deluge Where were they disposed A strange Question for a Believer to ask as if the same Power that multiplied could not also lessen And thus he may have eight or eighteen Oceans if it were requisite to make up his Deluge which says he is unintelligible yet is very intelligible to any true Believer tho the means whereby so much Water was produced be unintelligible And I would gladly know of any man what absurdity or what inconvenience there would be to Religion in this way of multiplication I profess I cannot see why any one should scruple at the unintelligibleness of this if he believes the other of multiplying Loaves in the Gospel And therefore I require our Theorist to shew us some inconvenience or unintelligibleness in the one more than in the other VII But he brings a Rule out of S. Austin That in the difficulties of Scripture we should not easily make use of Gods Omnipotency for their interpretation Let it be so we are not easily to make use of Gods Omnipotency Must we therefore never use it Are there not a hundred Miracles in Scripture which neither St. Austin nor this man with all his Philosophy can shew how they could be done in a Natural way And therefore when our Reason cannot find out how such a thing can be effected by any other means than by Gods Omnipotency we aseribe it unto that This saith he is to make God march forwards and backwards create and annihilate multiply and lessen according to our will and pleasure Not so but according to his own Word When he tells us such a thing was done by him and we cannot in reason find out how it was done by any other means than by Creation or Multiplication we do not then vainly make use of his Omnipotency but only to make good his own Word And I conceive we can never fully satisfie our Reason and answer every Objection that may be made in this matter of the Deluge and in many other things contained in Scripture without some such way And give me leave to say further We do in this deal much more mannerly with the Deity than he does for we leave God to his own liberty to Create or multiply when he sees occasion but this Man would bind up Gods hands and manacle them so as he must not by any means Create anew or Multiply be the occasion ever so great even the Deluge of the whole World And truly this Man seems to me and I believe to all Men else a very Miracle who allows no Miracle in the Deluge but will needs have all done by Intelligible and Rational ways as he calls it but we may rather call it a fictitious and Romantick way as we shall see by and by when we come to it VIII But I think it fit at present to give an Answer to an Objection made by him I shall make bold to say very frivolous Moses saith he in the description of the Deluge ascribes it unto two express Causes the breaking open the Fountains of the great Deep and opening the Windows of Heaven and by these two means the Deluge arose and overflowed the World Here you may see Moses tells you the means whereby the Deluge was effected Moses makes no mention of Creating or Multiplying power And what of all this Was there therefore no extraordinary power made use of in the Deluge Job 9. 6. It is said our Saviour spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him Go wash in the Pool of Siloam he went his way therefore and washed and came seeing Here you see the means expressed whereby this mans eyes were opened viz. by anointing his eyes with clay and washing in the Pool of Siloam Were this
relation of the World mentions all particularly and how that the Earth with the great Abyss about it was framed first and some days after that mentions the Creation of Sun Moon Stars c. And therefore it is a strange thing that this being done in the middle of the Creation he frames his World and takes no notice of them when or how they had their being But this is a mystery we must be ignorant of and pass it over in silence However if he thought not sit to meddle with these things yet methinks he might have told us something more plainly of the Creatures below how they were produced And first for Fishes he passeth them over in silence as not sit to be mentioned in his black Sea under the Earth And as for Fowls and Beasts he seems not fully resolved whether they were produced all at one stroke or no as he phrases it that is all at their full growth but seems rather to believe that the Earth of it self spawned them forth in their first Seeds and that in time they grew up to more strength and perfection Here he mentions not 〈◊〉 all Gods command impowering the Earth to produce them that is contrary to his course who will needs have Nature alone act in all things And truly for my part I have not faith enough to believe that his fine fat oyly Earth ever so fat was able to produce Creatures of it self alone And as far as my old head can remember I take it to be against Philosophy also that vegetating power alone can produce Animals and I should wonder much to see a Horse grow out of a Tree or the Earth But let it be his Earth produced Animals If then the Earth naturally of it self produced these various Creatures methinks the same Earth having the same principles of life in it should still have gone on to produce more and more Creatures till at length the whole Earth should be covered by them But I leave him to confider more of this matter VII We will rather hearken to Moses who plainly tells us that both the Earth and the Water produced these Creatures by God's special Command and when his Command ceased their production also ceased And farther tells us God commanded the Sea to produce all sorts of Fishes among others the great Whales Did all these swim up and down in his Sea under the Earth and the great Leviathan take his pastime therein as the Scripture saith He had but a dark place to sport himself in nor any room to spout up the Water into the Air as he hath in our Seas Sure he rejoyced much when this Earth broke and let the Waters go abroad to flow over it but doubtless many of them were knock'd in the Head by those great Mountains of stone falling into his Deep Yet we will let all this pass and be it so that the Fish were all imprisoned in his dark Sea under the Earth But I must needs tell him though he past this over in silence this business of Fishes loudly and fully consutes his Sea under the Earth But we will proceed to Fowls We find ver 20. God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and Fowl that may fly above the earth in the open Firmament of Heaven Were then all the sorts of Fowl under Heaven produced by his Sea shut up under the Earth Truly I can as little believe that Water of it self should produce an Eagle as the Earth a Horse yet we must believe Nature can do all things But if Water naturally produced Fowls at the beginning of his World why should it not go on to produce to this day I have heard indeed that there is in the Sea about the coast of Africk a kind of flying Fishes that are able to raise themselves up a spirt from the Sea but I never met with any Traveller who told us that either Sea Lakes or Rivers produced Eagles Swans Kites or Ravens or any other Fowl The Earth perchance he will say is grown more barren since the Fraction but the Waters sure must be the fatter that fat oily Earth having fallen in to enrich it Besides it hath now the warmth of the Sun to help forwards its production But he will have it otherwise and we must submit Yet I desire him to tell us how the Fowls being produced by his Waters under the Earth how they got out Certainly they could not get out till the Deluge when the Earth brake and let them also fly abroad at liberty his Earth being firmly closed up on every side not one loop-hole to fly out at for he will not allow so much as a Spring in his Earth to arise from the Sea and by this means they must needs have been drowned as soon as they were made having no place to fly abroad under Heaven no nor any space of Air between the Water and his oily substance I believe these things will make any serious man stumble much at his Theory And I desire him to consider that men will expect to be satisfied in these great seeming absurdities VIII In the mean time we will proceed to examine his fluid Mass in it self without any relation to the Animals before-mentioned and how the parts divided themselves and by degrees separated one from another till at length the heavier sinking downwards and the lighter mounting upwards it settled in all these distinct bodies of Earth Water Oil Air Fire and the Heavens above which he never told us yet what they were made of therefore we go no farther than Fire And when all these were distinct then this oily substance to settle concrete and harden and make up a new-fashioned Earth I desire him to tell me how many years this was in doing We find a Tun of new Wine having a great deal of foul and heavy lees in it mingled with the body of the Wine requires two or three months time to settle in How much time then would it require for such a vast Vessel as the wide circumference from the uttermost Circle under the Moon round about the World to the very Centre which is many thousand miles I say for such a Vessel full of his fluid Mass to divide it self and settle in I leave him to consider the time I am not concerned in it But I think I may securely affirm it could not settle in one two or three or thirty months time much less in one two or three days time in which Moses relates the Heavens and Earth with the Sea to be framed and the Earth to be clothed with Grass Herbs and Trees And therefore were there nothing else different in his Production from Moses's Creation this alone would make a believing Christian throw his Theory aside Moses so plainly telling us God created the Heavens and the Earth part dry Land which he called Earth and the gathering together of the Waters he called Seas IX But we will go on with his
brutish Reason nay more than brutish in comparison of the Divine Infinite Wisdom Wherefore S. Paul with great reason bids us Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Not that true Reason or true Philosophy can spoil any man but vain and deceitful Reason and Philosophy such as the tradition or experiments of the World commonly make use of XII This pains I have taken to satisfie this over-inquisitive Man in the Works of God which he saith God hath given him Reason to employ in but yet to be done with Reason and Moderation which he doth not Having thus as I humbly conceive sufficiently declared where the quantity of Water may be found to make up such a Deluge as Moses mentions either wholly by Waters already created or if you please to take in the Divine Power of Multiplication which sure we may allow here as well as we believe it to be done in the Gospel-loaves then I am sure it is easie to find out Water for it And I think no sober man will deny in this Deluge a Miracle was wrought in the extraordinary manner of the Rains descending and the Fountains flowing let this Man deny what he pleases for some men cannot be confuted but by Club-reasons I desire him to remember what he saith Pag. 297. concerning Lucretius Though his suppositions be very precarious and his Reasonings all along very slight he will many times strut and triumph as if he had wrested the Thunder out of Joves right hand and a Mathematician is not more confident of his Demonstration than he seems to be of the truth of his shallow Philosophy Mutato nomine de te XIII We will now proceed to the manner of this Flood how Moses describes the beginning rise and increase of the Waters and likewise how he describes the decrease which I desire you to observe very well that when we come to compare it with this Mans invention and manner of it you may see how strangely he prevaricates from the Truth related by Moses Gen. 7. 11 c. where he saith The same day that Noah entred into the Ark were all the fountains of the great Deep broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights And ver 17. he saith The Flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the Ark and it was lifted up above the earth and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth and the Ark went upon the face of the waters and all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail and the Mountains were covered And then concludes the Chapter at ver 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days Here you see how the Waters swelled first to that height as to reach to the place where the Ark stood and the Waters rose more and more till at length the Ark was lifted up above the Earth and as the Waters prevailed and covered all the Hills and Mountains under Heaven the Ark went upon the face of the Waters which continued in that manner a hundred and fifty days over the Earth Now can any sober rational man understand these words of Moses otherwise than that the Waters increased so far as at one time they covered the whole Earth not any particular part of it for Moses saith they prevailed upon the Earth in general as he had described it before Valleys and all Hills also So that the Ark moved upon the face of these Waters which thus continued many days And thus the whole Jewish Church and Christian Church in a word all Believers have understood these words of Moses in this very sense Had the words of Moses been any thing obscure and some men had raised doubts upon them he might have had some ground for his understanding them otherwise but the words of Moses being esteemed very plain in themselves and never any doubt raised upon them what other argument would this Man have to prove the sense of them unless he can prove all the World were such Dunces before him as they could not understand plain words Yet notwithstanding all this Gentleman hath the strange confidence to affirm Pag. 80. That without doubt it was a great oversight in the Antients to fansie the Deluge like a great standing Pool of Water reaching from the bottom of the Valleys to the top of the Mountains every where alike with a level and uniform Surface If it were so great an oversight in the Antients Why doth not he prove that oversight Doth he think any man takes his over-confident affirmation to be a proof All the World hitherto understanding them in this sense he should both have shewed and proved particularly wherein this mistake doth lie and set down the words of Moses which our Narration varies from without wresting or labouring to put on another sense than is evident for certainly no man would be so rash and heady as to contradict the whole World without a full and clear Demonstration Yet he neither offers a Demonstration nor any Argument to confute this Opinion but his over-great confidence so great as not to be parallel'd in any Writer that I ever heard of XIV Now let us go on to Moses in the description of the decrease of this Flood in the eighth Chapter where he saith God made a Wind to pass over the earth and the Waters asswaged the Fountains also of the Deep and the windows of Heaven were stopped and the rain from Heaven was restrained and the waters returned from off the earth continually After the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated and the Ark rested in the seventh month upon the Mountains of Ararat and in the first day of the tenth month were the tops of the Mountains seen Here you find how after the Waters had continued several months they sunk by degrees till the Mountain tops were seen and the Ark rested upon the Mount of Ararat Is it not evident also by this place that while the Ark moved upon the face of the Waters all the Mountains under Heaven were covered until the first day of the tenth month when the Mountain tops began to appear No other part of the Mountains was then discovered the standing Pool mentioned before covered all And after this ver 8. it is said Noah sent forth a Dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground but the Dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned unto him into the Ark for the waters were upon the face of the whole Earth So that this Pool continued above forty days after the tenth month began Yet all this will not suffice to convince this Man of his Errour Notwithstanding all
Mass which became an Earth by certain particles falling down into it that helped towards a concretion I beseech him of what nature were these Particles that sunk down into the Oil If they were of an airy substance they must still have remained in the Air their proper Region If of a watry substance they would have sunk clean through the Oil into the Water and not have rested till they had come to their own Element If of an earthy substance they would have sunk down below the Water If of an oily substance Oil added to Oil makes it never the harder and so it would have remained Oil still and never congeled or concreted into an Earth I wish he had told us of what nature these Particles were and given a Philosophical Reason how they came to stick in the Oil and go no farther But put the case they sunk no farther at first yet methinks before they came to be a hardened Earth they must needs have so much weight as to make them sink down into the Waters for we find if you scatter dust upon the face of the Waters though it lie on the top a while yet as soon as it is throughly moistened it will sink down to the bottom And thus his fine Earth had been wholly spoiled in the concreting and we should have had a Deluge over the Earth before there was any Earth X. I have yet another scruple and desire him to tell me of what nature those heavy bodies of his fluid Mass were that sunk down below the Waters unto the Centre If of an earthy substance then certainly they constituted an Earth there their nature inclining unto that and so we have two Earths in one Mass one below at the Centre another made up of Oil and certain Particles I know not what And I would fain know how long this Surface which he calls Earth was in congeling and hardening to make it a perfect and habitable Body sure no small time and yet we have very far outgone already Moses's time of three days in which he tells us God made the Earth compleat with form and comeliness with Grass Herbs Trees c. Yet we must have time to bring it into an Earth and a longer time to harden it so far as to turn it into Stone also of which the surface of his new-found Earth seems to me rationally to consist for we generally find the higher we ascend up to the Mountain tops the more stony and rocky they are and consequently we may well suppose the Surface was the most rocky of all And yet he tells us that his Antediluvian Earth was of a delicate fine and fat substance fit to produce any thing even living Animals which a man can hardly believe that sees the ruins of it the higher we go all being as I said the more rocky and barren unfit to produce any thing And yet this is the same Antediluvian Earth in substance with the former though broken and ruined as he would have it From whence we may conclude his fine fat Earth had no other being but in his brain and fansie for the nature of it could not be so altered by his imaginary Flood which was but the dashing of Water by the fall of the Earth into it and tossing it up and in an instant down again there being nothing to support it And as this rockiness in the highest parts proves his fine fat Earth to be but a figment so do the several sorts of Mines confirm the same as Mines of Gold and Silver Lead Brass Sulphur Alum and such like Wherefore I desire him to shew by his Philosophical Reason how his fluid Mass wherein all things were confusedly mingled and settled onely according to their lightness or gravity the higher keeping above the heavier sinking down how it came to pass that these heavier bodies of Gold and Lead rested in the same parts where his oily and lighter Particles subsisted Methinks those Particles which were of so heavy a substance should have sunk quite through the fluid matter of Oil and Water also and never have stopt till they had gotten to the very Centre Besides How came it that Particles of so different a nature as Gold and Lead Sulphur and Alum should be found in distinct places within the same body of the Earth not far asunder one from another for he must still remember that his Particles which constituted his Earth had nothing else to distinguish their natures but lightness and gravity And therefore as I said before all the heavier must needs hasten quickly and equally towards the Center and could not make up so various bodies in the same parts of the Earth as here Gold there Sulphur hard by Lead near that Alum in another place pure earth and so Stone Coal and such-like all which are found in our present earth and were undoubtedly in the Antediluvian earth and could not possibly be so variously altered by the breaking of it the substance being the same though the former fashion of the earth might be altered We will yet consider his new fine spherical Earth a little farther XI He says and that very truly That all fluid bodies must run in a smooth and equal Line round about the Center and it is contrary to Philosophical Reason for any fluid body to rise up into a Hill unless kept in by force contrary to its natural propension Let him then tell me by Philosophical Reason how this fluid spherical body came into an Oblong and settled in the form of an Egg as he supposes it doth extend at each end towards the Poles and so he hath made two vast exorbitant Mountains in his Sphere he might better have allowed a great many little Hills as we find in our Earth Nay I dare say the highest Hill in the world doth not extend above the Valley from whence it ariseth by many degrees to that height from the Center as his Oval Poles must needs surmount the rest of his Sphere And if he once allow me but two Hills to be in his Sphere I shall by consequence bring in two hundred or two thousand there being no more reason against many than one To this he answers That all fluid Bodies do settle in a perfect Sphere unless there be some other cause to hinder it But for our Earth he give this reason for its setling in an oblong form viz. That this being one of the Planets is prest down by another adjoyning Planet and so forced out of its own natural form and compelled to extend it self towards the Poles We desire to know whether this our Planet hath two other adjoyning Planets pressing it together on both sides and they likewise others pressing them and if so yet there is no reason for its stretching out into an oblong for make two spherical Balls of Wax or Dough or the like and let one press the other they will both extend into a spherical Circumference as Cakes do being made round at first
these Heavens nor this Earth can declare unto us the glory of God or his Handy-work for this present Earth is a strange mishapen thing full of broken Rocks and Mountains Hills and Valleys Lakes and Seas the ruines only of a former Earth which carried a smooth spherical form a beautiful and rich Soil delicately adorned with Fruitful Trees and pleasant Flowers without Seas or Lakes and in a word all over a very Paradise The Heavens also were then of a temperate Serene Air no Storms or Tempests no Scorching or Freezing Weather but pleasant Seasons throughout the year fit to breed and nourish all things which now clean contrary is filled with boistrous Winds Storms and Hurricanes Heats and Colds distempered and infectious Airs so that men are now cut off in the beginning or midst of their daies or if they fulfil the whole number of them it doth not amount to half a quarter of their former longevity This he undertakes to set forth to us in a Book entituled the Theory of the Earth Which I shall now examine and pass some brief Animadversions upon it III. The whole Discourse of this mans Theory ariseth from the great dissatisfaction he had in two things the first was concerning the common belief we have of the Deluge that the Earth was wholly overflowed and quite encompassed with so much Water all at once as to extend to the tops of the highest Mountains and fifteen Cubits over fo so we understand Moses's description of it This seems to him a thing not intelligible and consequently not credible as we shall see hereafter The second thing that troubles him is the mishapen form of our present Earth as he thinks not becoming the Omnipotent Power of God who Created all things and after every Work affirmed that it was good which no man can say of this imperfect World for it hath scarce any thing in it of form or order but lies like a confused Mass of Ruins But tho the Creation was the first thing in order yet in his Book he puts it in the second place and begins with the Deluge as most to his purpose shewing the impossibility of it according to his Scheme of Philosophy for by that we are to rule our thoughts and words in all things appertaining to the Natural World as he calls it But the plain truth is both these difficulties are but pretended to bring in his new devised fancy of making another World very different from that which Moses describes in the Creation This is his beloved Darling which he would gladly compel us to receive by shewing us first the impossibility of such a Deluge in this World as now it appears And from thence he introduces a World of his own framing and shews thereby his admirable Wit and Parts as he conceives in its composure which we shall see when we come to it At present we will follow his method and begin with the Deluge the common opinion whereof he rejects because it is not Intelligible IV. He lays down this Rule That in all things appertaining to this Natural World which consist of matter and form we must not allow of any thing that is not agreeable to the ordinary course of nature which he supposes may be conceived in a rational way As for example That two material bodies cannot penetrate the one into the other this is against the Principles of his Philosophy And therefore we ought not to allow that the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin in bringing forth our Saviour into the World And that Accidents cannot subsist without a Subject to support them this also is unintelligible and therefore we allow not the Popish Transubstantiation So likewise we reject their Purgatory because it is unintelligible how the Soul separated from the Body being a pure Spiritual Substance can suffer by material Fire and suchlike their Tenets Yet we believe the first that the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin in partu that is in bringing forth our Saviour as well as in conceiving him because we have a sufficient ground for this in Scripture both in the Prophet Isaiah and in the Gospel A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son Her Virginity is jointly affirmed both of her conceiving and bearing And therefore all the Christian Church have ever affirmed it and say according to the Creed called the Apostle's born of the Virgin Mary But we find no compelling Scripture to make us believe the Popish Tenets we mentioned If the Papists could shew us as plainly in Scripture their Transubstantiation as we can that the Virgin both conceived and bare a Son we should as readily believe the one as the other Wherefore our Rule of Belief is the Scripture and whatsoever is plainly declared there we presently submit unto whether the manner of it be intelligible or not intelligible whether it relate to the material World or the Spiritual World for I know no reason why we should make that distinction of Material and Spiritual if Gods Word plainly declares it for by reason we are more assured that Gods Word must be Truth than that any material thing can be or can not be so Who doth understand the union of Mans Material Body with his Spiritual part the Soul Where the faculties of the Soul are lodged his understanding Will and Memory and how they are distinguished How material accidents of the Body work upon the Soul and disorder sometimes the understanding sometimes the memory Nay in things wholly material How little doth man understand or can give a reason why a dry yellow Seed of Wheat should spring up in a green moist Blade and that grow into an Ear and become Wheat again Or who doth understand the various flowings and ebbings of the Sea These are things our very Senses tell us are so yet our Reason doth not at all understand how they came to be so Shall man then who understands not himself nor the mean works of God by his shallow weak Reason examine and determine the great and wonderful Works of God God forbid V. But this man perchance will say that he hath found out an explication of Scripture in this business of the Deluge which never was found before and such as may accord as well with Moses's relation as that we commonly receive To this I answer If his way of interpreting the Scripture be extravagant Romantick and ridiculous in it self not any thing becoming the gravity of Scripture and also put a sense extreamly forced and even contrary to the words as they have been understood by the whole World hitherto we have reason to reject it And now let any knowing serious Person not light and giddy Persons who are pleased with any novelty consider and weigh the Arguments he brings and the Answers herein contained and then let him judg of the whole matter wherein we will now proceed VI. His first Chapter is only by way of Introduction to bring in the rest And in his second Chapter he endeavours to shew us