the Creation is to be limited to the Formation of our lower World and those parts of Nature which could be made out of the Earthly Chaos And that when he speaks of the Coelestial parts of the Universe the Luminaries Ib. cap. 7. p. 232. Edit 1. he meant no more than that they were then made Conspicuous and this if need be he declares he could demonstrate But the Objections made against these Confident Notions of his are answered only by being in part left out of the second Edition of the Latin Theory A farther Evidence that what he wrote was true and remarkable Natural History And also plain Demonstration in the case too But then 't is of the weakness to speak freely not of the truth or validity of his Assertions And withal here 's some proof that notwithstanding the great impertinence of this Chapter it reached the Theory in some things which ought to be taken notice of and spoken against for they were so very culpable it seems that they deserv'd to be cashier'd or left out CHAP. V. HEre the Answerer observes the Form of the Earth to be Excepted against upon the account that it would have wanted Waters or Rivers to Water it in that there would either be no Rivers at all or none at least in due time But before he opposes these Reasons he gives a short account of the state of the Waters in his primeval Earth and then declares p. 13. This I believe is an Idea more easily conceiv'd than any we could form concerning the Waters and Rivers of this present Earth if we had not experience of them On the other side I believe the contrary so easie to be conceived that I shall not spend time in making it out I only say thus much In case his Idea were most easie to be conceived yet what is most fair and easie in the Idea or speculation of a thing is not always most true but may be most false in Nature Look to the constitution or posture of the Heavens There the Aequator and Ecliptick intersect each other in an angle of twenty three Degrees and better But the Philosophers Idea represents a Parallelism in the axes of these two Circles and a Coincidence in their Plains most easie and natural Yet this angular intersection holds tho it is thought some Mechanic or Physical Causes would bring them nearer to the site we speak of And this very position tho it seems to be forc'd and violent and that as well to the Course of Nature as the Philosophers Conception or Idea is yet the most convenient that possibly can be for the Earths Inhabitants and by its lasting continuance becomes a choice argument to confute the Atheist and evince a Providence The Reason why there would be no Rivers at all Answ p. 14. he notes was because the Regions towards the Poles where the Rains are supposed to fall and the Rivers to rise would have been all frozen and congeal'd And he goes on Why we should think those Regions would be frozen and the Rains that fell in them he the Excepter gives two reasons the Distance and the Obliquity of the Sun As also the Experience we have now of the Coldness and Frozenness of those parts of the Earth And what says he to these our Reasons As to the Distance of the Sun he would make the Excepter answer that Himself bringing him in thus He confesses Ib. That is not the thing that does only or chiefly make a climate cold Ay and that Confession he keeps to still supposing the Suns Distance be Perpendicular which was the Distance he spake of Disc p. 118. But if the Sun moved always in the Aequinoctial his Distance from the Circumpolar or Raining Regions must be an Oblique Distance And if that Distance were but as great betwixt the Sun and the imaginary Raining Regions as it is betwixt the Sun and us in the Depth of Winter it may from hence be concluded that the Cold in those Regions must be as great as in Winter time it is in ours by reason of his distance As to the Obliquity of the Sun the Answerer says it was neither so great nor so considerable in the first Earth as in the Present Answ p. 14. But tho the Obliquity of the Sun be greater now because the body of this Earth lies in an oblique Position to him yet his Distance from us in Winter is far less now in this present Earth than his Distance from the Raining Regions was in the primitive Earth Because that being an oval or Oblong Earth its circumpolar Regions must be far more remote from the Equator See Discourse c. 5. § 4. than if it had been Round or Globular And so the Raining Regions then must be much colder than our Climate is now in the dead of Winter For as it is not the Distance of the Sun alone that makes a Climate vehemently cold so it is not his Obliquity alone that does it neither but a great oblique Distance And so great and considerable must the Sun's Distance of this Nature be from the Raining Regions in the Primitive Earth as to leave them in a very freezing Condition Especially if the Experiences alledged by the Excepter be well considered Ibid. to which there is nothing distinctly answered Instead of applying himself to take off them the Answerer is pleas'd to tell us thus Answ p. 14. That if the Excepter had well consider'd the differences betwixt the present and the primitive Earth as to Obliquity of Position and that which follows from it length of nights he would have found no reason to have charg'd that Earth with nipping and freezing Cold where there was not I believe one morsel of Ice from one Pole to another As to his belief who can regard it It comprehends such things as no Christian Philosopher ever yet did nor ever can or will put into his Creed And as for the Fxcepter he has well consider'd the things he speaks of and still finds he has sufficient reason to charge the primitive Earth in its Rainy Regions with Nipping and freezing Cold even with a Cold more nipping and freezing than is felt in our Climate in the Winter Season Indeed he instances in one thing in this present Earth which he thinks should cast the Advantage for Coldness on our Climate's side that is the Length of Nights Ibid But consider all Circumstances aright and the real Advantage as to Cold will appear to be with the First Earth it s Rainy Regions must be colder than ours For in that Earth the Nights were continually twelve hours in length and in our Climate if we take one with another throughout the Winter Months we shall find that our Nights do not much exceed those in Length For tho in December they be above four hours longer than they yet in February they are never longer by two hours and an half and in the end of that Month
to his concluding Objection against our Caverns What reason have we to believe that there were such Vessels then Ib. p. 77. more than now To this we have spoken so very fully Disc p. 306 307 308. that nothing more needs here be added in way of reply Who would have thought there had been such fountains in the Rocks of Rephidim and Cadesh if God had not opened them But he draws out the Objection farther thus Answ p. 77. If the opening the Abyss at the Deluge had been the opening of Rocks why did not Moses express it so and tell us that the Rocks were cloven and the waters gushed out and so made the Deluge This would have been as intelligible if it had been true as to tell us that the Tehom Rabbah was broken open But there is not one word of Rocks or the cleaving of Rocks in the History of the Flood To which we reply first Moses does not say that the Tehom Rabbah was broken open but only the fountains of it were broken up And what fountains belonging to the Tehom Rabbah could more properly be so broken up than these Caverns Secondly the Intelligibility of a thing is no reason why it must needs be expressed How many things are passed by with silence in Scripture even where occasion is offered to speak of them which yet are true and had they been expressed might easily have been understood And thirdly the same Objection which he throws at the Excepter rebounds back with violence upon himself If the breaking up of the Abyss at the Deluge had been the Disruption and fall of the Earth into the Abyss which lay under it according to the Vital Assertion of the Theory in that case why did not Moses express it so and tell us that this Disruption and Fall of the Earth into the Abyss which lay under it made the Deluge This would have been as intelligible if it had been true as to tell us that the Fountains of the Jehom Rabbah were broken up But there is not one word of this Fall of the Earth in the History of the Flood Thus have we seen the Assaults that are made upon the new Hypothesis for the Explication of the Deluge But so far are they from overthrowing it that they seem to me not to shake it in the least And I cannot but own that I am never so inclinable to believe it may be true as when I consider how weak the answers are to the reasons and arguments alledg'd to confirm it and how inconsiderable the Objections against it But yet I do no more affirm it to be true now than I did at first Tho I am apt to think it may as well pass for true and may as easily be maintained to be true as that Hypothesis to which it is compared and which arrogates to it self the glorious Title not only of a true piece of Natural History but also of the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the World CHAP. XVI THE principal matter and the only thing to be noted in this Chapter is what our Author omitted in its proper place and is here thought on by him to be answered According to his usual way of mistaking Answ p. 78. he calls it one objection tho there be two very distinct ones He answers the last first and therefore I begin with that Disc p. 311. which was this If the Abyss under the Earth to wave the other things mention'd had been the great Deep meant by Moses it had not had any true or proper Fountains in it And so what will become of all the Fountains of the great Deep His Answer is Answ p. 78. there were fountains in the Abyss as much as Windows in Heaven The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Windows signifies as well Cataracts and it might have been rendred so more properly And indeed in the Margent Gen. 7.11 it is rendred Floodgates which in signification is somewhat nearer to Cataracts Tho that I say would have been the properest reddition in this Text. For Cataracts are high and broken places from whence waters do impetuously rush down And therefore thick and broken Clouds condensed into hardness or an Icy consistency from which prodigious waters by falls from one concameration of them to another came tumbling down in excessive quantities and at last were discharged hideously on the Earth in many places especially about the lofty Mountains were at that time true coelestial Cataracts which by ALMIGHTY GOD were then opened even in a literal sense And therefore these Cataracts or Windows of Heaven by some learned Commentators are expounded to be Nubes densae Copiosae thick and huge Clouds But now in the inclos'd Abyss there were no answerable Fountains broken up no such real Fountains as these were real Cataracts of Heaven and therefore the Answer given is not home to the purpose The other Objection was this Whereas it is said Disc p. 311. Gen. 8.2 That the Fountains of the Deep were stopped the Earth broken down into the Abyss was never made up again He answers those were shut up that is Answ p. 78. ceas'd to act and were put into a condition to continue the Deluge no longer But then if the Stoppage of these Fountains was Figurative the Fountains themselves must be the same And so they were not so real as the Cataracts of Heaven were Nor could they be stopped so properly as our Caverns might be the thing that we argued for and the drift of our Objection was to make it out And as for this answer it rather strengthens the Objection than takes it off CHAP. XVII IN justification of that Positiveness wherewith he was charged in the beginning of this Chapter he makes profession of his belief of the Theory And let them that can do it envy him the satisfaction and benefit of it But if he has no better proofs of its certainty than what he has produced when by his faith he apprehends it for a Reality he may do no better than he did who embrac'd a shadow for the Goddess There are many thousands and they not unlearned who take Legends for truths and equal Tradition to the written Word Who put Apocryphal Books into the holy Canon and give fullest assent to that pregnant absurdity the Doctrine of Transubstantiation But this is so far from changing the Nature of the things that it only betrays the folly of the Persons For it evidently shows the blindness of their Minds that they are so strangely impos'd on and the weakness of their Judgments that can be led captive into such gross and groundless Errors And from these and other Instances we may infer that a strong faith and confident assurance may be no arguments of the objects truth but of the Believers Credulity It is a notable word that Demosthenes spake in his Third Oration to the Olynthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Disc p.
Penelope unravelling by night what it weav'd by day Thus he pulls down his own Censure upon himself Methinks they make very bold with the Deity Eng. The. p. 20. when they make Him do and undo go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions as we do not willingly impute to the Wisdom of GOD ALMIGHTY CHAP. XIV HEre another Vital Assertion of the Theory's is excepted against and Reasons are given why the Deluge cannot be rightly explicated by the Dissolution of the Earth or its Disruption and fall into the Abyss The first is Disc p. 285. because it would be inconsistent with Moses 's Description of Paradise which he has made according to proper Rules of Topography But says the Answerer this Objection I 'm afraid will fall heavier upon Moses Answ p. 60. or upon the Excepter himself than upon the Theorist And why so Why Ib. because that place of Paradise cannot be understood or determin'd by the Mosaical Topography one of these two things must be allowed either that the description was insufficient and ineffectual or that there has been some great change in the Earth whereby the Marks of it are destroy'd If he take the second of these Answers he joins with the Theorist If the first he reflects upon the honour of Moses or confutes himself Moses's Topography of Paradise as it was done by proper Rules so it was sufficient and effectual enough for marking it out as it once stood And that it is not so now is because as the second Answer intimates there has been a great change in the Earth in that part of the Earth where the Paradisiacal Region was And such a change may be allowed without joining with the Theorist as he Himself assures us For he tells us in the same page that good interpreters suppose that the Chanels of Rivers were very much changed by the Flood And a great change in the Chanels of Rivers must make a great change in a Country Especially where that Country is describ'd by those Rivers which is the case of Paradise And this change is the very thing which makes the place of Paradise so hard to be found Yet this I say is very far from joining with the Theorist For according to him the Chanels of Rivers were not only changed Eng. Theor. p. 252. but all broke up and so quite put by by that Fraction of the Earth which made the Flood And not only the Chanels of Rivers were destroyed but even the Sources of them too by his Hypothesis For whereas the general Sources of all Rivers in the primitive World were the Rainy Regions about the Poles Those Polar Regions fell in together with the rest and so Rivers which were before could not afterward continue Let him please to say therefore whether Tygris and Euphrates were before the Flood or not If they were not how could Moses describe Paradise by them If they were had the Flood come in by the Earth's Dissolution they must inevitably have been destroyed But instead of that they are still in being and this is an evidence that the Earth was not delug'd by being dissolv'd Nor is this the only difficulty upon the Theorist here For as to the place of Paradise he refers himself wholly as we have heard to the Ancients and they incline to seat it in the South or South-East Land in the other World And can it enter into the mind of man to think that Havilah and Aethiopia and Assyria and Hiddekel and Euphrates which Moses takes into the description of Paradise could ever be situate in the other Hemisphere when they are now found in this If the Earth fell in without question it gave a deadly jounce But could it make these Countries and Rivers rebound with such force as to leap quite beyond the torrid Zone and settle some degrees on this side of our Tropic There are a sort of Divinity Theorists * Annus ipse nonagesimus primus ejus seculi erat quod eodem anno ac pene mense natalis Deiparae Virginis domus deficiente cultu ex Asia in Europam coelestium ministerio transit Quae primo in Dalmatia inde quadrienno post in Piceno consedit Hor. Tursel Epit. Hist lib. 9. pag. mihi 302. who would fain perswade us that the Lady of Loretto's Chamber went thither a Pilgrimage out of Nazareth This is strangely marvellous but the wonder of it will be much abated if we can find the Regions and Rivers we speak of going on procession out of the South-East Land into this Northern Continent I confess we are taught strange things of Paradise but this its translation would surpass all And how good soever its Soil was at first certainly it grew very light at last to hop thus far Were this an effect of the Earth's fall believe it here is either a very fair tumbling Cast or else our Author is in a foul mistake And so indeed he must be and the Objection which he was afraid would fall on Moses or the Excepter lights heavy on the Theorist But out of this fear he quickly rises into another Passion if we may guess by his expressions in the next Paragraph Tho I cannot but say his Passion is as causeless as his fear was groundless For speaking truth in a controversy should never move choler And did the Excepter do more than so when he said that to affirm Moses's Description of Paradise to be false Disc p. 286. must be horrid Blasphemy it being Dictated by the H. GHOST Yet this is the word which he takes so ill And truly so far as he has said any thing that implies Mose's Topography of Paradise to be false So far he ought to resent what was spoken tho not with anger And pray how can he allowing own Hypothesis to be true defend Moses's description of Paradise from being false seeing he describes it by Rivers and those Rivers according to the Theory could not be before the Flood He attempts the Defence thus The Theorist supposes Rivers before the Flood Answer p. 60. in great plenty and why not like to these He himself has given Reasons why they could not be like them Eng. The. p. 252. 'T is true if you admit our Hypothesis concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge then we cannot expect to find rivers as they were before their general source is changed and their Chanels are all broke up And if Rivers after the Flood are not as they were before it how can they be alike And when their source was changed at the Deluge and their Chanels all broke up how is it possible but that they must differ greatly from what they were in their situations Courses c Which must utterly spoil them for being topographical marks I mean the same true topographical marks to any Country to which they formerly were so And can they then be alike That Person who can think that the Earth was
at removing it Ib. p. 81. The first is this Let us remember that this contradicting Scripture here pretended is only in natural things And is his contradicting Scripture then but pretended only I heartily wish for his sake that it were so But what is said in the Eighth Chapter of this Reply makes it too real and apparent To extenuate it therefore he here remembers us that his contradicting Scripture is only in natural things And now I must confess my self to be at a stand I have often been surpriz'd at occurrencies in his Writings but now I am almost amaz'd To see that so wild a word as this should come from the Pen of a Christian Doctor That he should alledge for himself as a kind of defence that he contradicted Scripture only in natural things As if when the H. SPIRIT spake of such things he did not mind what it was he said or men might interpret it even as they list and turn it to a contrary meaning if they please without offence As if it were lawful in some things to give GOD the lie so we but allow him to speak truth in others Believe it I take no pleasure at all in these expressions but yet I cannot forbear neither to think the Oracles of Heaven should be thus treated I formerly minded him of too bold an affront to Scripture and how he might approach towards another enormity and GOD knows I did it in meekness and kindness And however it was taken 't is now plain 81. it was necessary For in that very page where he reflects on those things he runs unhappily into this new exorbitance of excusing his contradicting Scripture by saying he did it only in natural things As he bids us remember this so I hope he will remember it seriously Else by the memento he here puts in he will but heat a Brand as it were to mark himself for extravagance And truly admit but this one Extravagance of contradicting Scripture in natural things and it will draw such a number of others after it and those so notorious that no tongue can be able either to reckon them up or represent them It would even match the Doctrine of Transubstantiation that Hydra of non-sensical errors and monstrous Jargon of absurdities As a specimen of this take what follows From the very beginning as Scripture assures us the Sun shone in the Heavens the Light filled the Air and Day and Night were alternately on the Earth But these were Natural things and may we venture therefore to contradict Scripture in them and say they were not so Then how could the World possibly subsist As Scripture informs us the Ground yielded trees and trees brought forth fruits and of one sort of fruit did our first Parents eat tho it was forbidden them But these were Natural things and may we therefore presume to contradict Scripture and deny that they were thus Then how came these Products into being which gave occasion to the sin and fall of man As Scripture instructs us Adam begat some Children and they begat others and they again others and so on But these Generations were Natural things and may we therefore take upon us to contradict Scripture and say there was no such way of propagation Then how could Mankind be increas'd and multipli'd As Scripture teaches us the Body of our LORD was flesh and blood But flesh and blood are Natural things and may we therefore be so bold as to contradict Scripture and say that his body was not carnal Then how can his blood cleanse us from our sins or how shall we ever be saved by his Cross And when to such a monstrous and mischievous pitch of absurdity contradicting Scripture in Natural things would rise this aloud proclaims it to be an evil practice and a method too licentious to be allowable And farther Natural things may be matter of divine Declarations and Promises in Scripture And when they are so to contradict Scripture by saying they are otherwise than that declares or promises they should be must be indirect impeachment of the Truth Fidelity and Righteousness of Heaven Thus for example it was of old declar'd or promis'd to Noah that while the Earth continueth seed-time and harvest and summer and winter shall not cease Gen. 8.22 But therefore should we say that these various Seasons shall not be constant and run parallel with this Earthly Worlds existence but shall either be suspended by discontinuance or interruption or else cease by praemature abolition or expiration by contradicting Scripture in these tempestival Natural Vicissitudes we should break in too rudely upon GOD's most glorious Attributes aforesaid We may very easily bring this home to the Dominion over the Fish of the Sea That was a Priviledge which GOD declared or promised should be Adam's He therefore that denies the being of a Sea till long after his death by contradicting Scripture in a Natural thing must reflect dishonourably upon that GOD Who keepeth truth for ever Psal 146.6 In spite of this his Character which I would not should fail for ten thousand Worlds he makes him at once to be false to his Word unfaithful to his Promise and unjust to his Creature But as He that is righteous in all his Ways must needs abhor to be thus so we must abhor to think it of him And farther yet should GOD evidently violate but one express Declaration or Promise he has made tho in Natural things what a Damp would it cast upon mens belief of him in Celestial Concerns What a jealousy might it raise and what a vehement suspicion might it justly create in them as to all his highest promissory engagements making them apt to question whether he would stand to any if not ready to conclude that he would keep none And thus again the evil of contradicting Scripture in Natural things will discover it self He was pleas'd to signify Gen. 3.15 that the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head Of how high a Nature and of what infinite Consequence was this most gracious Declaration or Promise It was the authentic Patent of Heavens renewed kindness to Sinners and the grand Assurance the Praediluvians had of its Spiritual and Eternal favours But if Adam and his Children of the first world had found by experience that the GOD who made it could break faith with men why should they regard it And what convincing experience had they of this if when he promis'd the Dominion over Sea-fish to them he did so grievously tantalize and abuse them as to hide both the Sea and all its Fish from them to the end of that World Manifest it is that He assur'd the Inhabitants of the primitive World as much of Dominion over the Sea as he did of the benefit of an incarnate Saviour but then if he cheated them so egregiously at present how could they in prudence trust him for the future and take his word to be what the Psalmist styles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉