Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A49295
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A summary of material heads which may be enlarged and improved into a compleat answer to Dr. Burnet's Theory of the earth digested into an essay by a pensioner of the Charter-House.
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Lovell, Archibald.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing L3242; ESTC R2876
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19,436
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30
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which frequently happen he shall be more than a Philosopher erit mihi magnus Apollo at such Times the Water appears Turgid and Flatuous as Impregnated with some Extraneous Body and the Air Thick Raw and Squalid So that Men covet a Close Room where they may enjoy a corrected Air as the Fish skulk to the bottom to be refreshed by a purer and untroubled Water which shews That both then are unduly mixed for the common uses those Elements are intended for and therefore since plus and minus non variant Speciem the same Causes which serve pro tanto may serve pro toto since no Man can deny but that they Exist in the World nor no Christian doubt but that God Almighty if he please may Employ and set them at Work and Moses no where says That the Earth was drowned with Salt Water So that I think if the Author do but make a Serious Reflection upon the Reasons now given he cannot but be ashamed of his blunder as to the quantity of the Water necessary for the Flood and much more of his reason and manner of making it and confidence in maintaining the same When in his reply to Mr. Warren one of his Answerers he says he believes the Truth of his Hypothesis as much as any thing of that Nature can be believed for since the System of Moses which is as agreeable to Natural Reason as any thing can be is a Thing of the same Nature and as firmly believed by all who own the Scriptures to be the Word of God as any Article of our Creed He must either renounce this Faith of his or by keeping it be an Infidel It 's time now that we consider what Expedient our Author hath taken to find out Water enough to drown the World without any necessity of Miracle and without any respect to the Relation of Moses and this we find he has done by making a New Genesis new modelling the Fabrick of the World and Ordering the State of Nature by turning one Chaos into another and indeed a better into a worse For when he stuffs his Chaos with Ponderous and Earthy Parts Watry Parts Light and Unctious Parts c. which are compleat and perfect Natural Beings consisting of Matter and Form in the Language of the Schools He represents to us a Chaotick State of Nature jumbled into Disorder and Confusion and not a True and Original Chaos which was no more but what the Poet says rudis indigestaque moles bare and indigested Matter void of all Form but susceptible of any that it should please an Almighty Creator to stamp upon it And nevertheless in purging and digesting this his Chaos such as 't is into a Frame and State of Nature he observes a Method that turns all topsie turvie and quite inverts the very Order that the Laws of Natural Motion and Gravity and his own Principles require For contrary to that Principle of Gravity upon which he lays so much stress in building us a World out of a Natural Chaos he observes a very preposterous Method and makes that which should be the Roof the Foundation This he exposes to open View in the Scheme he gives us of the World as thus He places the lightest of all the Elements instead of the heaviest in the Foundation and makes the Fire to be the Centre of our Globe But for what reason he does do so unless it be the kindness he has for Sea-Cole for the good Services they may have done him I cannot imagin Next to that he places a Lay or Orb of Earth over that a Lay of Water and over all another Lay or Orb of Earth for a crust and covering stratum super stratum as the Physicians use to prescribe These as he says continued in this State for a long while till at length this upper crust and covering of Earth growing old and crazy chopt and decay'd did in the days of Noah break to pieces and fall into the Water underneath where it was soak't in a Deluge and thereby the Face of the World was Altered and Changed from what it was before to what we see it at present For the Surface of the Earth which before was even and smooth was as he would have us believe by this disruption made Rough and Rugged Mountains and Vallies Hills and Dales steep Rocks and Precipices which never were before then appearing and the Waters that had formerly lain hid under Ground became an open Sea consisting of a Spacious Ocean and Various Bays Creeks Gulfs Inlets and Lakes as now it shews it self My Answer now in short to all this is That there is not One Word of it True nor indeed Possible in Nature that it can be True even granting the Authors Hypothesis could consist with the Laws of Natural Motion and Gravity as from what hath been said before may be demonstrated it cannot because according to that undeniable Principle which I laid down in the beginning and which the Author cannot reject That all Bodies which rest upon a Center must of Necessity cast themselves into an Orbicular or Circular Figure That there is no Vacuum and that no Body in this Globe or Sphere can move out of its Place but it must succeed into the Place and Room of that Body which did dispossess it the Expulsed into the Place of the Intruder If the Crust of Earth which the Author will have to have been the Circumference of this Globe did break and fall down the Orb of Water underneath being then dispossest by the Earth so falling in must needs mount and succeed into the Place of the Earth filling all the Space which that Orb had abandon'd before so that the Earth must for ever lye soust in it's own Pickel impossible to be retrived again into dry-Land unless by a Miracle as great as any that he would avoid that is God Almighty's anihilating all the Water diminishing the Extent and Compass of the Globe and altering the whole Frame of Nature How deep the Earth would then be under Water it is not easie to be determined since as the Learned Dr. Beaumont justly complains the Author has assigned no proportion to his several Orbs but if the Proportion mark'd in his Scheme be exactly measured with relation to the Globe of this our World the Waters then over the Earth must have been of a prodigious Depth For in measuring the Scheme he gives us of the Globe we find that the Orb and upper Crust of the Earth takes up one fifth Part of the Semidiameter of the whole so that the Semidiameter of the World being Three Thousand Five Hundred Miles the fifth Part of that which is Seven Hundred Miles and makes the Thickness of that Superior Orb falling into the Water underneath the Water mounting into the Place of it must needs fill all that Space of the Globe which the Earth had forsaken But being tho' much of the same Dimension as to it 's Depth and Thickness an inferior
A SUMMARY OF MATERIAL HEADS Which may be Enlarged and Improved into a Compleat ANSWER TO Dr. Burnet's Theory of the EARTH Digested into an ESSAY by a PENSIONER of the CHARTER-HOUSE Semper ego auditor tantum nunquamne reponam Juv. Cumâ—â—â—n Nullius 〈◊〉 jurare in verba Magistri Hor. LONDON Printed by T. B. and are to be Sold by the Book-sellers of London and Westminster 1696. To the RIGHT HONOURABLE The Governours of the Charter-House My Lords IT may seem Inconsistent with a Character Your Honours vouchsafe to bear That any who live under the Influence of Your Lordships special Care should be apprehensive of the Want of Protection And it would be so indeed My Lords did all keep within the Bounds and Precincts of the Liberties allotted them But since I have been so rash as to venture Abroad into the World it is from that Transcendent and more Extensive Character of Honour the Signature of Noble and Exalted Minds that displays it self in supporting the Weak and Defenceless and not from any Claim of Right arising from Promise or Stipulation That I can expect and do most humbly crave Your Lordships favourable Protection in a little Ramble that now I have made to the Press Had the Excursion been greater My Lords it is probable my Confidence would have been more Excusable and a fuller grown and more bulky Book would have born a truer Proportion to the Ambition I had of having brought a more Earlier Offering of Duty and Gratitude to Your Honours It was what I intended My Lords and should have performed had not my Design for want of kinder Nursing Fathers bin starv'd into this scanty and lank Essay Nevertheless I am inclin'd to think My Lords That the Bulk alone will be no Hinderance to its Acceptance nor to the Grant of that Favour which is humbly su'd for at Your Lordships Hands since if I be not very much impos'd upon little as it is it may do some Good in the World It is therefore in hopes of Your Honours Countenance and Approbation That with so short a Weapon I have engaged a Mighty and well Appointed Adversary The Attempt I confess seems rash My Lords but cannot think it will be look'd upon as Dishonourable since my Dagger is no Stiletto is neither poison'd nor rusty nor is it wrap'd up and hid within a treacherous Sleeve To such as may think it a little too sharp and keen I have this to say My Lords That it is the more like for that to do Execution and to prevent more trifling and fooling of Sophisters and Theorists with a Matter that is too serious to allow it or to admit of a dallying and perfunctory Dispatch And that it was an honest Concern for so good a Cause as that of Truth and Religion with a zealous Endeavour to undeceive if possible a licentious and prophane Age of a most dangerous Error into which many for no other Reason but that it is A la Mode are capriciously fond of being deluded that hath in a great Measure given it the Edge Were I to alledge other Personal and more particular Reasons for the Thing My Lords I should be blinder than indeed I am and that 's what no Man living can be if I mistook the proper Judges to whom I ought to Appeal But then again I should be rasher too My Lords than is fit for a Man in better Circumstances than I am in to be if by a Message from the Press I summon'd in Witnesses and an Audience to the Tryal It is too great a Trouble for Your Lordships at present That the Author with his little Naked Book is laid at Your Honours Feet humbly begging from your Acceptance and Protection a Covering for both against the foul Weather of Censure and Malice If this great Honour be to be obtain'd My Lords I shall then rest secure in the Confidence of being reputed to be what really and with all Submission I am My Lords Your Lorships most Dutiful And Obliged Servant and Votary ARCHIBALD LOVELL Brother and Pensioner of the Charter-House Charter-House June 16th 1696. A SUMMARY OF MATERIAL HEADS Which may be Enlarged and Improved into a Compleat ANSWER TO Dr. Burnet's Theory of the EARTH THE Learned Author of this Sacred Theory of the Earth Dr. Thomas Burnet Master of the Charter-House who allows the World to have been drowned by Water is pleased to object against the manner of the Deluge as it is related by Moses and his Reason for so doing in short is the difficulty of finding so much Water in the Universe as might effect so great and stupendious a Work for having by the help of Messenius calculated the proportion of the Water necessary to drown the Earth and rais'd the Flood to that pitch which Moses says the Waters did arise to above the Tops of the highest Mountains Though he doth acknowledge that there is as much Water at least to be seen on the surface of this our Globe as there is dry Land yet he concludes that it would require Eight Oceans as big as the present to perform the Work in the manner Moses says it was done And since so great a quantity of Water cannot be found in this World nor in probability borrowed from any where else it could not be had without the expence of Two great Miracles the one in creating so much Water as would be fit to do the business the other in annihilating the same after the Work was over so that since Deus natura nihil frustra faciunt if any other way or expedient can be found it is vain and unreasonable to have recourse to Miracles and this I take to be the strength of all the Reason and Argument that he has to object against the truth of Moses's Relation Now since the Author confesseth that there is as much Water as dry Land in the World I think one may venture to say that Intelligendo facit ut nihil intelligat he cannot see the Wood for Trees and that as much more would make it all Water for Two halves makes a whole So that were I not confined to the brevity of an Essay I should spend a little time to make it plainly appear that the Author has made an inauspicious Blunder in the beginning of his Work and indeed a greater Bull than the honest Irish-Man was laugh'd at for when he said They had broken his Stick into Three Halves for here the Author has broken a Whole into Ten Halves the Earth and the Ocean being already Two Halves he adds Eight Oceans more to make the Ocean half as big as the dry Land half which in all makes Ten Halves and all this performed by meer natural Philosophy without the help of Magick or Mathematicks But at present I shall proceed to shew how without a Miracle Water enough may be had in the World to bring a Flood upon the Earth and drown it in the manner Moses has related it To this purpose I shall