I believe they have very little Authority for it I have seen several Draughts and Descriptions of this Mountain in Books of Travels but never found any thing which made for this story The likest matter which ever I could find and which might perhaps give contenance to this Assertion is a Relation I find in the Travels of Christophorus Furerus a German Knight Itinerarium Christophori Fureri Printed at Norimberg 1621. And he in the Description of St. Catharines Hill which is nigh Sinai has these words In valle propinquâ Collis est miri aspectus quasi totus exustus esset cineribus tectus quo loco Mosen ovium soceri sui pascendarum curam habuisse memorant In the Neighbouring Valley there is a Hill which is wonderful to look upon appearing as if it was all burnt and covered with Ashes in which place they say is the place where Moses kept his Father-in-Laws Sheep Now unless it can be supposed that this Hill was Mount Sinai it will signify nothing But the same Furerus gives a particular Description of Sinai in the following Chapter and therefore that can be none of the Hill which he before described This is in all probability some little Hill nigh St. Catharines and Mount Sinai whose Earth is of a blackish colour and barren not unlike many of our Heaths And this is all the ground I can find they have for the Volcano of Sinai But supposing that little Barren Hill were Mount Sinai they very little understand the Nature of a Volcano to think there should remain no other Marks of it than only a black ground like Ashes Read but the Descriptions of Mount Aetna in Polybius and Strabo and you will strait be of another mind For all such Burning Mountains have an Open Mouth on Top of them through which they belch out their Flames which the Ancients called the Crater because the disgorged Cinders and melted Metals of Mount Aetna being hardened about the Brims of the Hiatus did resemble the Lips of a Pitcher Now 't is impossible there should be a Burning Mountain without such a Crater or Hiatus which would needs appear after the Fire was gone out in the figure of a Monstrous Gap unto the End of the World 3. Nay this Appearance of God or of an Angel representing him in Flames of Fire with Earth-quake Thunder c. is very agreeable to all the Ancient Theology For my part I am of Opinion with many of the Ancients that it was a superior Angel that personated God and not the second Person of the Trinity as some And this is more agreeable to Scripture as when it is said Gal. 3.19 That the Law was given by Angels in the hand of a Mediator i. e. Moses And so Josephus remarks of his Nation * Antiq. Hist Lib. 15. We have received of God the best and holiest Parts of our Law by Angels And so the Author of the Questions to the Orthodox †In Just Martyr 's Works The Angels which spoke in Gods stead to men were called after Gods name as the Angel which spoke to Jacob and to Moses Nay sometimes men are called Gods To both these it is granted to possess God's Name and his Place by reason of the Office which is intrusted to them But when their Office expires they then cease to be called Gods because they received that compellation only for the sake of the Office And therefore Jamblicus * Jamb de Mysteriis Sect. 2. Cap. 3. calls the Heroes and Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirits that appear for themselves to Men whilst the superiour Spirits have their Representatives And so Socrates †Plutarch de Genio Socratis could not believe that the Gods did appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and said all were Pretenders and Cheats who affirmed it Now that when Great Angels appeared very great Flames of Fire were seen and great commotion in the things about happened may be known from the words of an Heathen Author and who is therefore more unexceptionable * Jamb de Mysteriis Sect 2. Cap. 4. As often as Archangels appear certain parts of the World are shaken and a fore-running Light ushers them in and according to the largeness of their Empire is the largeness of their preceding Light proportioned And so again afterward the Archangels are full of an excessive Splendour Angels have some Light and Daemons a turbid one c. And again he says Archangels Fire is undivided that of Daemons is divided and more circumscribed and the Fire of the Archontes the higher they are is the brighter And so God himself is represented by the Ancients as dwelling or inclosed in Fire So Orpheus in his Hymns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For round thy burning Throne attending stand Crowds of Angelick Orders And so the Chaldaick Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When you shall see the shapeless sacred Fire With dancing gleams shining quite through the World Then hear the Voice from out the Fire And to the same purpose that Oracle which is extant in Cedrenus and Malela Not. in Jamblichum pag. 300. and corrected by the learned Dr. Gale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There does from the capacious Heaven descend Vast and Eternal Light Immortal Fire Which all things tremble at Earth Heaven Sea With the Tartarian Vaults which Daemons dread Fatherless Father of all things alone Father and Son to his Eternal self Born of himself Vntaught Vnchangeable His Nature unaccessible to Reason His Habitation Fire and this is God Of whom we Angels are a slender part And now in silence from our Altars go Now this Notion was so frequent in the most ancient and Oriental Theology that it might possibly give original to the Worship of the Fire among the Chaldeans and Persians to those Magi among the Cappadocians called Pyrethi which Strabo * Lib. 15. make mention of to the Vestal Fires among the Greeks and Romans and the like Custom among the †Solinus Cap. 35. Britans Therefore the Unbelievers shew a great deal of Ignorance when they tax this Relation of Moses representing God's appearing on the Mount in a flame of Fire with any Incongruity or invent any groundless stories to account for it seeing this is nothing but what is agreeable to the Ancient Divinity and the usual Sentiments of most Nations in the World And so as for the Earth-quake or shaking of the Mountain it is no more than what all Nations have thought has come to pass at the presence of God As Psal 68.8 The Earth shook the Heavens also dropped at the presence of God And Psal 104.32 He looketh on the Earth and it trembleth And Virgil in his Description of the Approach of Phoebus does in a manner but translate the words of Moses tremere omnia visa repente Liminaque Laurusque
Generation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is agreeable to what the Scripture says of Noah his being a Preacher of Righteousness to the ungodly Antediluvians upon account of his good Counsel and Piety Now he was saved after this manner He had a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an Ark or Chest into which he came with the Children and Women of his House and then entered Hogs and Horses and Lions and Serpents and all other Animals which live upon the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of them with their Mates And he received them all and they did him no harm for by assistance from Heaven there was a great amity between them So all sailed in this one Chest as long as the Water did predominate But these things are told in the Greek Histories of Deucalion But of those things which happened after one thing worthy of great admiration is told by the Inhabitants of Hierapolis That in their Country there was a great Gap into which all this Water sunk Vpon which Deucalion built Altars and a Temple over the Gap and consecrated it to Juno I my self saw the Gap It is very little at the bottom of the Temple as I told you Whether it was formerly bigger or no and grown narrower by Age I cannot tell but this I can tell that That which I saw was but little Now they make this the sign of the History Twice in a year Water is brought into the Temple and not only the Priests bring it but all Syria and Arabia Nay Men come even from Euphrates to the Sea all carrying Water which they first pour into the Temple Then the Water descends into the Gap and though the Gap be small yet it receives a prodigious quantity of Water And when they do this they tell that Deucalion first instituted this Custom to be a Memorial of the Calamity and his Deliverance from it This is the ancient Tradition which those about the Temple tell From which Relation it is remarkable that it was the Opinion of the People of Syria that there had been an universal Deluge that a certain Man and his Family were saved in an Ark and a Male and Female of every kind of Animals to restore again the drowned Creation and that all this vast quantity of water sunk into an Hiatus of the Earth and made the World habitable again Now I hope that Moses his Relation is not so incredible when it has the joynt Testimony of so many Nations and particularly the Heathen Syrians so exactly corresponding with it Indeed this story in Lucian is told after his way drollingly as if he did not believe it but yet there is no question to be made but that it was the relation of those People though he has a mind to expose it But I need not trouble my self to prove the Being of a Deluge by Tradition of Nations when late observations have given Demonstration of it The Beds of Shells which are often found on the Tops of the highest Mountains and petrified Bones and Teeth of Fishes which are dug up hundreds of Miles from the Sea Trees and Shrubs buried many fathoms under ground are the clearest Evidence in the World that the Waters have some time or other overflow'd the highest parts of the Earth which was the Deluge which we contend for The truth of these matters is not to be contested now by any that have but the least Insight in Experimental Philosophy Nor can it be with any degree of probability said that all these subterraneous Bodies are but only the Mimical and mock Productions of Nature for that these are real Shells the nicest Examination both of the Eye and the Microscope do attest and that they are true Bones may be experimented by burning them and then they will first turn into a Cole and afterwards into a Calx as other Bones do How far Nature may sport her self in the subterraneous World in the impression of the Images of Terrestrial Plants upon Slate and Coles I will not dispute but that it should produce True Bones and Shells which answer in all respects to those of the Genuine Animals is incredible and next to the boldness of an Epicurean Concourse for the Frame of the World 2. That the Deluge was possible I shall therefore only set my self to prove that there is Water enough in or about the Earth to drown it and to rise up to that height which Moses did report it did I confess I do no think that the Waters of the Sea are one quarter enough for such a Deluge and therefore it must be sought for elsewhere That there is a vast quantity of Waters under ground Vid. Dr. Burnet's Theor. p. 1. and an Abyss within the outward Crust of the Earth is I think evident to any who considers that in many places the Sea disgorges it self into the bowels of the Earth and does not pass off by any Out-Current The single Mediterranean Sea is a sufficient Instance of this for considering how many and some vast Rivers run into it and it having no visible outlet what should become of the Waters Nay considering that there are two Currents of the Sea set into it one at the Straits of Gibralter and another vastly strong one of the Pontus which the Ships do with difficulty bear up against it must necessarily be allowed that this Sea does empty it self by subterraneous passages into some great receptacle of Waters underneath For otherways many Ages ago the Mediterranean had over-flow'd and drowned several Countries on the adjacent Shores Nay the fathomless bottoms there which some have tried in vain with so much Cordage to reach Vid. Dr. Smith's Account to the Royal Society in the Philosophical Transactions is the most evident proof which can be of the Truth of this Assertion And the same holds likewise in the Caspian-Sea And I think there is little doubt to be made but those dangerous Gulfs and Eddies which the Sailors shun in many parts of the Ocean are but only great Holes or subterraneous Passages through which the upper Sea is gulping down into the Abyss beneath Now if there be such a great Receptacle of Waters beneath the Earth as there is no question to be made of it so many mighty Seas continually running into it then the Earth must be hollow and only a superiour Crust concluding within it an Abyss of Waters as is represented Fig. I. and Fig. II. If there be the same Quantity of Water remaining as there was at the Creation then the total Hollow of the Earth will be filled up with Water but if any part of it be lost or consolidated upon the outward superficies of the Earths Crust then by the Laws of Attraction if the Water does not exceed in Gravity the Circumambient Earth it will lye round it in the Ring P S R Q and there will be a Hollow in the Central Part u w x z. But if the Body
the point D then the Orbit of the Moon shall be inlarged to u s t equal to her former one I p i l or as great as her other she had before the Acceleration of the Earths Motion So that then the Moon being as far distant from the Earth as formerly she was those great Tides will be over and the Deluge at an End all the Waters being again sunk into the Belly of the Earth through the same Cavities by which they ascended Phil. But stay Sir this does not much mend the matter for this attributes the cause of the Flood only to the breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep which Moses likewise attributes to another cause viz. the Rain of forty days and forty nights Cred. Indeed Moses says that at the beginning of the Deluge it rained forty Days and Nights but he does not say that these Rains added any thing considerably to the Deluge of the whole World They only raised the Waters to such a height that the Ark was born up and swam upon the Waters And the Flood or Rain was forty Days upon the Earth and the Waters increased and bore up the Ark and it was lift up above the Earth Gen 7.17 But in the two following Verses is expressed the Effect of the Waters rising out of the Abyss And the Waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the Earth and the Waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth and all the high Hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered So that what was the Effect of the Rains to lift up the Ark Moses calls only increasing of the Waters but when he afterwards speaks of the eruption of the Abyss he says a great deal more that Waters increased greatly and prevailed exceedingly And indeed this previous Flood from the Rains or Preludium of the Deluge was wisely designed by God Almighty that the Ark might be lift up before the Torrent from the Abyss came or otherways such a mighty Current running with so great a Force would have overthrown and drowned it before it could have been lifted up But a Rain of forty Days having before made a Land-Flood great enough to bear up the Earth the fury of the roaring Torrent of the Abyss would be broken by the yielding Waters under the Ark and so would by degrees be raised to the height which the Waters rose to without Danger I will not contend that there was no more than this forty Days Rain for it is probable that it Rained the greatest part of the Time that the Waters covered the surface of the Earth for the Sea then being above as large again as it formerly was must supply a far greater quantity of vapours than could possibly be suspended in the Air and therefore must fall down in frequent or continual spouts or Rains This I take Philologus to be a possible account of the Deluge and is a sufficient confutation of them who decry it as an impossibility Phil. Well! supposing that the Absurdities of Moses his relation of the Deluge are not so great as are generally imagined yet I cannot allow him to be a true Prophet because the pretended Miracles by which he endeavoured to establish his Laws and Doctrines seem to me to be mere Artifice contrived only to beguile the silly Jews and to lead them tamely by the Nose without opposition They poor Creatures thought that God wrought mighty Miracles by his hand whilst he was only working Designs for himself to purchase himself Admiration among the Rabble or else to gain a Jurisdiction under the specious name of a Theocracy But alas these Miracles are all Craft and Collusion which any Cunning Man might seem to do If he had but such simple Inspecters Witness his pretending to receive the Law in Mount Sinai where he gave out that he conversed with God who appeared there in smoke and thundering and lightening No doubt the poor folks were strangely amazed at this terrible Scene But Moses or any other intelligent Man knew well enough that there was no great matter in it For all this wonderful Appearance was in all probability only a Volcano in that Mountain which Moses did very politically forecast that the Jews should not come to the knowledge of For if they had run gazing up the Mountain as well as he the secret would have been found out and the Miracle spoil'd But Moses very prudently commands Ex. 19.13 that a hand shall not touch the Mountain but he shall be stoned or shot through whether it be beast or man nay not so much as the Priests themselves must come up lest the Lord break forth upon them ver 24. but only Moses and Aaron who were let into the Mystery must come there Nor is this Volcano in Mount Sinai only a Conjecture but is confirmed by the observation of Travellers who still behold the Mountain full of Ashes which do plainly shew the Ruins as it were of an extinguished Aetna This Credentius is an Objection not to be bantered off for if this stands your whole revealed Religion shakes because this is the very Foundation of the Jewish and Christian Institution and if there be any Trick here as is much to be feared all that is built upon it is good for nothing Cred. There is so much false suggestion and groundless Assertion in this last Objection that it is intolerable and one had need of the Patience of that Holy Religion you are opposing to be unmoved at it 1. But 'pray Sir what By-Ends had Moses to serve by his playing this sham Prank as you do suppose in the Mount He could not get a greater Authority over them than He had before he had been their Deliverer from the Aegyptians and was their conducter in the Wilderness and had as absolute command over that People as could be desired Neither could Fame or a Desire of raising his Family put him upon any such indirect Methods For he seems to have been the most sincere and modest and most disinterested Man of all Men that ever lived He is so open and faithful in his History as to record his own Failures and those of his dearest Relations his Brother and Sister He gave the Priesthood which was the most considerable honour in that Nation away to his Brother Aaron's Family contenting himself that his own Posterity should only be ranked among the Ordinary Levites And at his Death disposed of the Government to Joshua a Stranger Neither is it credible that he would make use of such a mean trick as this which was so easy to be discovered by every bold Man whose curiosity might prompt him to venture the Menaces especially when he had established sufficiently in them an Opinion of his miraculous power by all the wonders which he had done in Aegypt and at the red Sea 2. Nor is there any tolerable ground for this supposition of a Vulcano's being formerly in Mount Sinai I know your Brother Infidels make a mighty Noise with this story but
Dei totusque moveri Mons circum mugire adytis cortina reclusis all things do seem to quake The Doors and Laurels of the Gods do shake The tott'ring Mountain moves in Eddies round And from the Curtain creeps a hollow sound So whenever the coming of Hecate is described as in Theocritus his Pharmaceutria c. Or when any great Deity appears as that great Demogorgon which Lucan mentions Lib. 3. the Earth is always said to tremble peretis an ille Compellandus erit quo nunquam terra vocato Non concussa tremit But after all here was not the least ground to suspect any Deceit in this wonderful occurrence for Moses deals very openly with the Israelites in this matter and suffers them to come up into the Mountain after the LORD had departed thence And there is a signal given them when they shall venture to come When the Trumpet soundeth along they shall come up to the Mount Exod. 19. v. 13. Now if there had been any thing of this pretended Vulcano in the Mountain that Moses had cheated them with to be sure Moses had forbid them to come up to the Mountain altogether for their viewing those natural Eruptions afterwards would have laid open the Cheat as much as if they had been present when Moses gave out he was receiving his Law from God who exhibited himself in that Appearance Phil. But still Credentius there is another of this Legislator's Actions which sticks much in my stomach and that is his making the Jews believe that by a divine power he turned the Waters of the Red-Sea into two solid Walls standing up on each side of the Israelites to let them pass through upon the dry-ground But to say nothing of the pleasantness of this Miracle Methinks this was but a cast of the Legislator's Cunning to coin a Miracle out of the Seas Low-water For it is a Tradition among the Aegyptians that Moses being a little more subtile than the ignorant Jews or the Aegyptians which pursued him understood the exact time of the Tide of that Sea and so carried over upon the Ebb his People safe whilst the Aegyptians were lost for lack of better observation * Ant. Lib. 2. Cap. ult Which Thought so wrought upon the Learned Josephus that he allow'd the same to be done by Alexander in passing the Pamphylian Sea Or however this Miracle is much lessened if we assert with a great many of the Divines that the Jews did not cross the Sea but only went in a little way and came out again on the same side and then ignorant folks that lived far off from the Sea might be imposed upon at the same rate every time 't is low water with us Cred. It is a wonder at this time of Day that you witty Gentlemen who are endeavouring to settle all things upon a new Bottom should be beholding to one of old Porphyry's Cavils to bespatter our Religion or to an idle Tale of the Aegyptians But in answer to these Insinnations 1. I am of Opinion The Israelites did not pass round the Head of the Sinus there is no reason to think but that the Israelites passed quite through the Channel of the Sea from one shore to the other For the only reason which gave rise to the other Opinion was the Relation of the Journies of the People Numb 23. where v. 6. it is said that they departed from Succoth which is on the Aegyptians side of the Red Sea and pitched in Etham and from thence moved to Pi-hahiroth passed through the midst of the Sea into the Wilderness and so went three days journey into the Wilderness of Etham Whence they conclude that Etham and the Wilderness of Etham must needs be on the same side of the Sea and consequently the Jews did not march cross the Sea but only through one side of it in a semicircle and out again a little higher on the same side But this is contrary to the express words of Scripture which say they passed through the middle of the Sea And as for the difficulty about Etham that is fairly solved by allowing only two Ethams the one a Town which they encamped at on the Aegyptian side the second on the Erabian side a Wilderness Instances of which are common enough in Scripture and Prophane Histories But if we must needs have the Wilderness of Etham denominated from the Town Mr. Le Clerk * Dissert de Maris Idumaei traject has ingeniously guessed that Etham the Town was situated nigh the upper part of the Sinus Arabicus and gave denomination to a great Desert which surrounded the Head of that Bay and reached down a considerable way on both sides So that though they marched from the Wilderness of Etham cross the Bay they would be only in another part of the Wilderness of Etham still The Waters did not stand erect 2. Neither do I see any reason to assert that the Waters are miraculously consolidated or that they did in a literal sense stand on an heap or erect like a Wall But only God sent a strong Wind as the Text says which blew back the Tide and all the waters which covered the sands over against Pi-hahiroth further towards the Ocean leaving some waters stagnating towards the Head of the Sinus all along towards the Mediterranean Sea So that by this mean the sholes about Pi-hahiroth must needs be left dry for the Israelites to pass over Indeed it must be a North wind which must produce this effect or at least a North-East whereas our Translation says an East But there is no necessity of translating Cadim East it signifying only a strong wind And so St. Jerom interprets it ventum vehementem urentem a vehement and burning wind And Ps 48.7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarsis with a Kadim the LXX Vid. Cler. Diss translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a mighty wind Vid. Ez. 27.26 Job 27.21 Jer. 18.17 And then this explication will be very agreeable to the words of the Text and that division which is assigned to the Waters there 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 Ex. 14.21 Now as for those words in the song of Moses and Miriam where it is said that the Flouds stood upright as an heap and the Depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea that must be taken only as a Poetical or Metaphorical Expression And where it is said that the Waters were a Wall unto them it must be understood only that there were Waters on both sides the sholes they passed over And this is agreeable to the expression in the Prophet Nahum Art though better than No-ammone or populous No that was situate among the Waters that had Waters round about it whose Rampart was the Sea and whose Waters were a Wall Nah 3.8 Not beat back by a natural Wind. 3. Nor did this come