mans eyes opened by a Rational way or by a Miracle So likewise at the Pool of Bethesda John 5. an Angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had Here we see the means express'd how they were cured yet without all doubt a miraculous means and far above the Reason of this Man and beyond his Philosophy to find out be it ever so great And so it is related by Moses himself when God caused the people to pass through the Red Sea Exod. 14. 21. Moses stretched out his hand over the Sea and the Lord caused the Sea to go back by a strong East-wind all that night and made the Sea dry Land and the waters were divided and the Children of Israel went into the middest of the Sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left Here we see a means used Moses stretching out his hand over the Sea and the Sea went back by a strong East-wind all night So that the Sea was not dried up of a sudden but by degrees Now will this Man with his Philosophy shew us a Rational way how this was done without any Miracle most absurd And just so though Moses ascribes the Deluge to a means the breaking open the Fountains of the great Deep and the Windows of Heaven to be opened and the Rain to descend and the Fountains to run forty days and forty nights and so the Flood prevailed till it overflowed the whole World to say there was no Miracle at all in this is as absurd and especially in his way of his new-found World where were neither Seas Rains nor Tempests whatsoever till the Flood but a constant calm serene Air perpetually which must needs cause them to think such a Deluge miraculous indeed never having any such thing as Rain before and of a sudden to see Water poured down in such wonderful abundance for forty days together If we should see Fire descend from Heaven in like manner forty days together no Man would doubt to affirm it to be a Miracle not Intelligible And thus you see what wonderful unintelligible difficulties this Man hath raised out of his Philosophy in this matter of the Deluge which he so much stumbles at IX But because he is a Man so desirous that all should be done in a Rational way we will endeavour a little to make this Deluge Intelligible in his own way and shew him how we may find Water enough for it in the vast great Deep below which he says is fathomless and from the vaster Heaven above which I may call Boundless in comparison of the lesser body of Earth to overflow that little circumference though it be taken fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountain and so make up his eight Oceans which he says is requisite Gen. 1. We find that when God created the Heavens and the Earth the Waters covered the Earth and then God divided the Waters and placed some above the Firmament and left some remaining under it Where or how the Waters above the Firmament were placed the Scripture doth not mention and therefore I acknowledg my ignorance and I find very knowing persons have much disputed whether in his Atmosphere or in some higher place but I rest contented in believing it because the Word of God hath said it Yet if I may propose my thoughts I conceive they might be placed in some upper part of the Aerial Firmament and not carried up above the Heavens as some have fansied and there extended to a far wider circumference than they were in here below whilst they compassed the Earth for a great depth of Water here when carried up and enlarged to that mighty extent would make a far thinner Orb and as clear as Crystal all earthly parts being extracted and no way hinder but rather encrease the light of Sun Moon and Stars as we see glasses of like nature do If this Philosopher tell me that immediately above the Air lies the fiery Region an ill neighbour for the Water I shall make bold to ask him how he knows that Hath he ever been there to see it As for Philosophers talk I think it much like Physicians many guesses but no certainty of any thing But if he like not this place for the Waters let him find out another for I hope he will not deny Moses's plain words That the Waters were divided and part placed above the Firmament If this Philosopher ask me farther how the Water being a heavier body than the Air doth there subsist and not fall down again I shall ask him how the thickest and heaviest Clouds sometimes pass away without any falling Rain and sometimes thin and far lighter Clouds fall down in showers How at the Prayer of Eliah it rained not on the Earth by the space of three years and six months and he pray'd again and the Heaven gave rain James 5. 17. Will this Philosopher say this was done by the course of Nature and ordinary means I am sure S. James ascribes it to Eliah's Prayer which withheld the natural course of the Rains descending for presently when he prayed again the Heaven gave rain All Elements have no other station than what God hath appointed them We know the fire came down from above when God commanded and burnt Sodom and Gomorrha And we are likewise assured that God commanding the Waters ascended up on high and that the Firmament is betwixt those above and those below this the Scripture declares Wherefore the first Principle of my Philosophy is To believe the Scriptures and that God governs all things and that every Element keeps that station which God hath appointed until he determine otherwise But if this Theorist be unsatisfied with this kind of discourse as not agreeing with his Principles of Nature let him place the Waters above the Firmament where he will it matters not to me Yet if he allow the Scripture he must join with me and grant that God had a great reserve of Waters in some Storehouse above to make use of whensoever he pleased As for the Waters under the Firmament first they covered all the Earth after they were divided then God gathered them together unto one place and made the dry land appear and God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters called he Seas For the reception of which Waters he had prepared a Channel how deep or how great a part of the Earth is filled with them I suppose is beyond this Mans skill in Philosophy or Hydrography to determine yet so that they were not all contained in the depth of that Channel below the Earth but part within the Channel and part remaining yet higher than the Earth in a wonderful manner as David expresseth it Psalm 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heap He
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
this particular description of Moses which is so plain as I do not know how he could speak plainer telling us how the Deluge was caused this Man hath the confidence to make a very different relation of it Job 28. God asks him a question Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth Declare if thou hast understanding So I may well say to this Man Where wast thou when I brought a Deluge upon the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Sure this Man was not then in being and therefore can discover no more unto us of that Deluge but what he received from others And I desire to know of him whether any of the Antients except the fabulous Heathens have delivered unto him any different narration from Moses concerning this Deluge the Christians sure have no other nor had the fews any other before them who are the men most likely to retain such a Tradition written or unwritten for Abraham had Sem the Son of Noah to instruct him in all things during his whole life of a hundred and seventy years Sem dying after Abraham as all conclude by a just computation Is it not then a strange thing that this Fraction of the Earth being the principal Cause given by this Man for the Deluge and without which there could be none as he affirms I say again Is it not very strange that Sem should not relate so wonderful a matter to Abraham unto whom doubtless he delivered the narration of the Flood with all its circumstances The other Sons of Noah Ham and Japhet lived also many years after the Flood and it is as strange that none of them should mention it to their Posterity and so it might have been conveyed unto Heathens also Yet no man in the World hitherto hath uttered one syllable of it And therefore I think I may safely affirm and he will be very well pleased with it if I say no Author in the World ever understood the Deluge or related it in such a manner as he hath found out and consequently may challenge to himself the glory of it if it be true but must bear the shame also if it be false But if you will have patience I will tell you in short the whole substance of this Deluge as he sets it forth XV. First he presupposes the World to have been before the Deluge of a smooth uniform surface of Earth as I shall shew hereafter without any Sea appearing but all the Sea was enclosed within a compass of Earth round about it and this Earth inhabited by all Mankind whose wickedness grew to be so great that God resolved to destroy them all except Noah and his Family who found favour with him And God foreseeing that the people of the World would grow so wicked as to deserve a destruction he so fashioned this World as at sixteen hundred years after the Creation it should in an instant fall all to pieces of it self And in this he admires God's great Wisdom but 't is his own invention setting it forth by the comparison of an Artists making a Clock with so rare an invention as not onely to strike at every hour but exactly at the end of a hundred hours it would all of it self fly asunder and break which would be far more admirable faith he than onely to make it so as to strike at each hour But now I pray you observe the rare Invention whereby this was effected This Earth at first you must suppose was a very Paradise but in process of time the Sun with its mighty heat so parched and filled it with chops and chauns which descended very far into the Earth and prepared it for a rupture and so heated the Waters within the Earth as it made them boil and send forth such violent furious vapours that the whole body of the Earty by their strugling to get forth was put into a terrible Earthquake and at length broke out in that raging manner as shattered this lower World to pieces which falling into that gulf of Water underneath great bodies of Earth tumbling down at once into it did so force the Waters up as to mount even to the very Heavens and so down again And by this means the Waters being cast up into the Air in several places one after another as the Earth tumbled down covered the Earth part after part as he supposes and thus made a Deluge for so he would fain have it Is not this a rare Romantick way and far exceeds all that ever hath been written of Sir Amadis de Gaule or the Knight of the Burning Pestle XVI Before I proceed farther I shall make some Remarks upon this his rare Invention First this whole body of the Earth like a vast great Pitcher was heating by the Sun sixteen hundred years together a wonderful thing One would have thought the Sun in six hundred years time or a thousand at most would have tried the uttermost of its strength and have set this Pitcher a boiling I pray you how thick was this Earth that it could heat the Waters under it He supposes a mile at least and yet in the hottest part of the World that we can now find do but make a Vault in the Earth twenty yards deep we shall find the Earth rather cold than hot and 't will yield a refreshment to any one that goes into it And sure our Torrid Zone is as hot as the Temperate Regions were in his fine World How then came his fine Earth to break into so many parts For we find when fumes or vapours are in the Earth and cause an Earthquake by their struggling mightily to get forth as soon as they have made a breach in one place to get out the struggling ceaseth and the Vapours come out in a Whirlwind Hurricane or some such thing And therefore had his Earth broken in some few places towards the Torrid Zone where it was most likely to break being thereabouts much more parched and chopt than in other parts methinks those vapours going forth at liberty his great Pitcher should cease from it boiling fury and the remaining body of the Earth might still have continued its dainty spherical form For certainly those parts under the Torrid Zone and nearit would have been more chopt and made ready for a breach in the first six hundred years than the Northern parts in the whole sixteen hundred especially considering the Earth as he would have it was set in that posture to the Sun and was so unfufferably hot thereabouts as no man living could endure it For so he sets it forth when he comes to treat of Paradise and dividing the World into two Hemispheres by the Torrid Zone and that men could not pass from one to the other by reason of the excessive heat Wherefore as I said it must needs be that this part must break many hundred years before the Northern part and the vapours got out the struggling and breaking of the Earth
and the Ark with it tossed up so often into the air with his flying Rivers and carryed headlong again down into the Abyss that the preservation of it must be a far greater Miracle than any we require in Moses's Deluge And thus is that Chapter framed in so wonderful a Romantick way as exceeds all that ever yet was written of that kind Is it not a strange thing that Moses should not have one word mentioning such a Fraction of the earth and so horrible a Tempest as ensued To this he Answers Page 70. That it is below the dignity of Sacred Penmen or the Spirit of God that directs them to shew the Causes of things and their manner of proceeding but Providence leaves that to the exercise of our Wills and Inventions And truly he has exercised his Wit and Invention in a most ample manner But though it be below the dignity of the Sacred Pen-men to shew Causes upon our Enquiry and to satisfie our Curiosity Yet when they condescend so far as to express the Causes and manner of their proceeding as Moses here doth shewing us the Cause from whence the Flood came viz. the excessive flowing of Fountains and the great abundance of Rains falling and how these Waters prevailed by degrees upon the Earth till at length they reached the place where the Ark was and swelling yet higher lifted the Ark above the Earth and prevailed so far as to carry it upon the face of the Waters fifteen Cubits above the tops of the Mountains and so on to the decrease Now Moses describing so punctually the whole business of the Deluge yet as I said before not to have one word of this horrible Fraction which this Man puts for the main Cause of the Deluge nor of this Tempest and for him to say 't is below the dignity of the Sacred Penman to give a Cause when they particularly relate the Cause is very absurd and also quite contrary for Moses expresly declares the Cause of the Flood to be the running of the Fountains of the great Deep and not the breaking of the Earth which he could not call Fountains Fountains being quite another thing Wherefore 't is evident this Man makes use of Scripture onely to give some credit to his Theory with inconsiderate people that mind Scripture very little Moses goes on in his description of the Flood and says that all the Hills and Mountains under the whole Heaven continued covered many days until the beginning of the tenth month when the Waters began to decrease and then decreasing forty days by degrees the tops of the Mountains began to appear all the other parts were covered still with Water for the tops onely appeared But this Man would have it clean otherwise The Waters did not prevail and ascend to the tops of the Mountains in his spherical Earth but the smooth body of the Earth fell down into the Water with such a mighty force as dash'd the Water on a sudden up into the Air even to the Heavens and the Water must needs fall down again on a sudden for nothing was there to hold it up but down it must How then did the Waters continue to cover and prevail upon the Earth a hundred and fifty days for part after part falling into it in all places the Water dash'd up and fell down on a sudden And sure Moses would not call the dashing of the Mountains the covering of the Mountains But suppose it to be so I ask Did all the whole earth fall down or no If not all then the parts remaining were not covered with Water and so the Deluge was not universal The men then that lived upon those parts of the Earth might escape the Deluge But Moses saith the Flood destroyed all flesh living except Noah and his And if the whole Earth did fall into the Water then the whole Earth was covered all at once by his own confession and the Deluge was universal in that manner as we affirm but he denies Now whether all the Hills in this World were made by the Flood or no we will not question But saith he They were all made by the breaking of the Earth there were no Mountains nor Hills in his fine World Well let it be so they were all made by the breaking of the Earth which he calls the Flood yet when they were made all were covered by Water and many Cubits higher Let this Man ask Moses whence he had all this Water for that is the Principle on which he depends for his whole Theory which this of Moses plainly confutes XIX Now the sum of all this Discourse lies here Moses as plainly as a man can express it declares that the Waters wholly encompassed the Earth all at once to the heighth of fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountain This quantity of Water saith our Theorist is unintelligible I say it is very Intelligible without making use of God's Omnipotent Power in Creating new Waters for it or in Multiplying any before Created though we may upon such an occasion do it But I hope we may make use of all those Waters which God Created the first day of the World And I have plainly shewed how that those Waters are fully sufficient to make up that mighty Deluge which to him is unintelligible For the first day of the World God Created a deep Abyss to encompass the whole Earth and this deep Abyss God divided and placed part above the Firmament and the other part remained under the Firmament which still did encompass the whole Earth Now if this Water which remained under the Firmament did once encompass the Earth Why might it not again in the Deluge encompass the same Earth overflowing all yea and fifteen Cubits more If he say the Waters were not so deep after they were divided I desire him first to prove that if he can and after he has proved it I have yet a great reserve of Water to make the Deluge viz. the Waters which God carried up above the Firmament I do not mean mists and vapours in the Firmament or in the Air below which saith he being condensed would make up but a small quantity of Water to contribute towards a Deluge let it be so I speak not of such vapours but of real solid Water part of that deep Abyss which encompassed the whole Earth at first and God divided and placed above the Firmament If he ask me in what place they were setled I freely confess I do not know yet God's Word hath said it and I very easily believe it was done tho where he placed them I will not take upon me to determine I hope he believes it was done as well as I and then if he please let him with his Philosophy determine the place where they were settled And when he informs me I will presently again inform him and shew him how there was Water sufficient to make up this grand Deluge And thus the business will be very intelligible which
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
that it were more Tautological if he did use the same words here but he doth not express it here at-large having exprest it in the former Chapter And if he did use the same expression here as he did in the former Chapter Have we not very many repetitions of things in Scripture mentioned in a former Chapter and in the same Chapter also XIII His fifth Argument is much the same with the third comparing the whole destruction of the Heavens and the Earth with the destruction of the Heavens and the Earth in the former World To this I answer as I did there that if he will needs compare both then the Heavens as well as the Earth must be destroyed in the former for you see he speaks in the Plural number as I said before the Heavens not the Firmament or Region of the Air as our Theorist would have it but the Superior Heavens that of old at the Creation were made by the Word of God which certainly are the same now as they were at the beginning and did not perish Neither did S. Peter mean this perishing of the Earth or Air but after he hath named the Heavens and the Earth he doth not say they perish'd but the World that is the World of the ungodly mentioned in the former Chapter Nor can it be properly said that the Earth perish'd if it were broken and the fashion of it changed as our Theorist would have it We do not say if a man hath broken his Legs or Arms by a fall that he perish'd but when he dies and all his Body perishes Perishing implies a total destruction But of the World of the ungodly it was properly said they perished being wholly destroyed And the main business of St. Peter was to Preach perishing and destruction to these Scoffers and for their sakes and such-like Sinners the Heavens and the Earth shall be consumed together with them XIV I know St. Austin and some others have applied these words of St. Peter to the perishing of the Firmament or Region of the Air yet very few in comparison of those that have thought otherwise but I wish him to observe a Rule that St. Austin gives of distinction between the Scripture and other mens Writings as well as a Rule he shews us ut quantalibet sanctitate doctrinaque praepolleant non ideo verum putem quia ipsi ita senserint sed quia c. That how holy or learned soever Men are I do not therefore believe it to be true because they say so but as far as they bring Scripture for it or some very probable reason And I am sure the words themselves in Scripture are the Heavens in the Plural and not the Firmament in the Singular and therefore we may more surely adhere to them than to the words of some few Men And yet they allow no such perishing of the Earth or Air as our Theorist would have but some small alteration It was the World of the ungodly the Animate World that wholly perish'd XV. I think it sit to answer here an Argument that our Theorist seems mightily to boast of the Rainbow which he affirms never appeared in the World till after the Flood and from thence would prove an alteration in the Airy Region What tho it do prove an alteration yet it proves no perishing which St. Peter affirms of the old World that it perish'd And how doth he prove this alteration He assirms it 't is true but proves it not by any other Argument but that God set his Bow in the Clouds to assure Noah of his promise that the World should never be destroyed by Water again No doubt a most clear proof I would fain ask this Theorist whether a Man of years being Baptized doth not take the sign of washing in that Sacrament for an assurance of his regeneration and forgiveness of his Sins tho perchance he hath been often washed before And thus tho Rainbows had often appeared before the Flood yet God might afterwards appoint it for a sign unto Noah to assure him that he would never destroy the World again by Water And so you see what becomes of this Mans convincing Argument he much boasts of But to return to St. Peter XVI Having thus expounded his words and shewed as I humbly conceive that our Theorist hath little or no ground for his vain siction I shall be bold to tell him further that it is very impertinent to talk to the Apostles of an Antithesis and Apodosis Tautologies or Redundancies and such-like terms of Rhetorick or Grammar-Rules fitter for School-boys to learn than for them whom our Saviour chose as unlearned and poor Fisher-men to Preach his Gospel to the Learned and Wise men of this World and by the Foolishness of Preaching as St. Paul calls it that is by plain and simple Preaching which the World calls Foolishness to confound all their Learning and Wisdom for the Apostles observed no such curious method and exactness of discourse but in their Preaching or Prophesying out of Zeal spake sometimes very abruptly and incoherently sometimes relating to one matter sometimes to another as the Spirit gave them utterance XVII And now I shall prove from these very words of St. Peter the clean contrary to what he affirms viz. His Antediluvian Earth without any Sea For St. Peter here in plain words affirms that the Earth before the Deluge stood part out of the water and part in the water These are his plain words without any such long Comment as he hath brought upon them But he objects that this our English Translation doth not accord with the original Greek which doth express it otherwise saying The earth standing Out of the water and By the water not In the water However these words of St. Peter express two distinct situations of the Earth Out of the water and By the water Let our Theorist tell me what those two distinct situations are out and by and I will presently shew him how that they cannot agree with his new-found Earth where the Waters were all in one manner situated within the Earth and none at all without But I shall now shew him from Gen. 1. which these words have a relation to that the words of St. Peter agree very well with the exposition of our English Translators Out of the water and in the water for Gen. 1. 9 10. it is said God gathered the waters together unto one place and made the dry land appear And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas Here you see the Earth out of the Waters in one place And I pray you let our Theorist tell us where the other part of the Earth was Was it not in the Waters for the Waters covered it It may be said also it was by or near the Waters as St. Peter hath it but yet more properly in the Waters And the Author of this Epistle whoever he was must needs intend the same if