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
layeth up the depth in store-houses Which seems to express that which I said before That the Waters were partly above the Earth and partly below the Earth as in a Store-house But though the Waters stood as he saith on an heap above yet God set them a bound that they may not pass over and that they turn not again to cover the Earth Which Jeremiah expresseth also Chap. 5. v. 22. Fear ye not me saith the Lord Will ye not tremble at my Presence which have placed the sand for a bound of the Sea by a perpetual Decree that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it This passage also of Jeremiah is very remarkable Will ye not tremble at my Presence who have placed the Sea in that wonderful manner as it hourly threatens you with an overwhelming destruction and would certainly confound you did not I restrain it and keep it back by a perpetual Decree And whereas our Philosopher saith that God hath set Rocks Hills and Mountains and decreed those for bounds to the Sea I desire him to take notice that here Jeremiah speaks not of any such bounds but the Sand only where the Waves roar and toss themselves yet cannot pass over it because of God's Decree He gives that as a reason for their restraint from overflowing the lower ground and not the highest of the Land above which the Sea can as easily pass over as the lower Sands were it not kept in by Gods Decree For as I said before this great Abyss did once cover the whole Earth before God gathered it together and there setled it by a Decree and might as well again cover it were there no Decree to hinder it Now Davids expression and Jeremiahs also were very vain if the Sea as this Man would have it were so much below the Earth that it did not need any restraint from God to keep it from overflowing and therefore let the Waves roar and toss themselves never so much yet without any Decree of God it is impossible they should overflow the Earth and men need not at all tremble at Gods Presence in that regard but may sleep secure from any danger of a Deluge Which Blasphemy I hope he will not presume to speak or think And if to avoid this Blasphemy he should say that Gods threatning was not in vain because by his Omnipotent Power he could take away all those bounds of the Sea Rocks Hills and Mountains And what then he hath brought the ground level to such a place as Jeremiah spoke of before yet there Jeremiah saith the Waters were not able to overflow it But he will farther extend God's Omnipotent Power to raise the Waters tho they are below the Earth and make them come like flying Rivers such as he mentions in his Deluge and overflow the Land Mark you now This Man would not allow God to do the least Miracle to make good the common interpretation of Moses's words no by no means he must not alter the course of Nature and therefore he hath taken so great pains to invent his Fraction to save God from doing a Miracle But now God must do Miracle upon Miracle pull down Mountains and raise up the Waters and make them come flying as I said over the Earth if he will destroy these obstinate Jews So that the whole fabrick of his Design and Fraction is wholly spoiled And the Jews being assured by this Philosopher that God would not do such Miracles to destroy them were safe enough and Jeremiah's or rather Gods threats would still be in vain And thus by avoiding one Rock he falls upon another and a greater Incidit in Scyllam X. And so let us return to Moses who saith the Waters first covered all the Earth and then that God gathered them together in one place where they might lie together as a swelling Mountain for as David expresseth it Psal. 33.7 He gathereth the waters together as an heap He layeth up the depth in store-houses This Opinion then of the Seas being higher than the Earth is no such old and foolish Opinion as he expresseth it for we shall not take his Ipse dixit for any Confutation though ever so magisterially spoken And if he argues against this That the Land and Sea make up one entire Globe and therefore the Sea must not swell out so far as to spoil the fashion of it Sure the swelling of high Mountains so far above the Valleys quite spoils the spherical form of his whole Globe let the Seas swell or no. But by what doth he find us necessarily obliged to confess the Earth and Sea to be in such a perfect Globe as we may not allow the Sea to swell above the Earth Perchance he will say all must run in an equal line round about the Centre How then doth the Earth it self run in so unequal a line as from the highest Mountain to the lowest Valley And the Mountains for ought I know might have been as high again and yet the whole Globe subsist in the same place that it doth Again If every thing must lie in an even line how comes the Sea in its deepest Channel to lie so much below the Mountains or any thing at all below them the Earth being so much a heavier body than it and the Earth according to its gravity should lie so much below the Sea and that encompass it round about as it did at the first Creation Wherefore his Philosophical Suppositions and Reasons signifie little Gods Creation and appointment are according to his own Will and pleasure and every Element sinks and rises and keeps that station he hath appointed for it And if he comes now to confute me with his Mathematical Instruments and pretends to shew me that the Sea is not higher than the Earth by standing on the shore and taking a level I shall not at all hearken unto him for tho by his Instrument no considerable rise of the Sea may be discerned in one short view yet in many thousand miles a very great rising may be discovered when he comes into the main Ocean and therefore I shall desire him to assure me that he hath walked with his Instrument upon the grand Sea and taken an exact level from England to America and that in a most perfect absolute calm for the least commotion of the Sea will spoil his measuring and so go on into the other Ocean beyond America and take the level likewise of that Sea A hard task I lay upon him but yet very necessary seeing he goes about to confute me and Scripture too with his Mathematical Instrument and therefore it is no wonder if I require him to walk upon the Sea being in a perfect Mathematical level Nor is this rise of the Sea a vain and useless thing but kept up by God in this form by his perpetual Decree for the use and benefit of
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