I willingly allow Answ p. 64. that some of the interiour and barren parts of the Earth might be turn'd up as we now see in mountainous and wild Countries but this rather confirms the Theory than weakens it He must allow according to the tenour of his Hypothesis not only that some but that many of the interiour barren parts of the Earth were turned up everywhere And then the Waters being so strangely tumultuous and the fluctuations of them so extremely boisterous The Tumult of the Waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some Months Eng. Theor. p. 76. Ib. p. 75. and their mighty rage of so long continuance While they were carried up to a great height in the Air and fell down again with prodigious weight and force they could not but harrass the Ground at such a rate as to wear away the upper part of it and make the top of the Earth as bare and barren as the bottom of a river by their monstrous and unspeakable Surgings Secondly he answers that the filth and soil would have made the Earth more barren p. 64. I cannot allow For good husbandmen overflow their grounds to make their Crops more Rich. And 't is generally supposed that the inundation of the Nile and the mud it leaves behind it makes Egypt more fruitful Besides this part of the objection lies against the common Explication of the Deluge as well as against that which is given by the Theory But when good Husbandmen overflow their grounds to improve their Crops they do it seasonably and they do it moderately and to be sure they do not at the same time turn them up for half a mile or a mile deep And tho several Rivers do inrich grounds by their Inundations by vertue of a great plenty of unctuous mud which they bring upon them that makes the Soil new as it were Nearchus de fluviorum effusione haec affert exempla quod dictum est Hermi Caystri Maeandri Caici campos similes esse propter limum qui e montibus delatus campos â—â—get imo facit Strabo Geogr. li. 15. so Hermus does and also Cayster Menander and Caicus as Strabo informs us from Nearchus yet that mud which the Deluge would have left would have been of a silty and sandy nature and so of a lean and hungry and starven quality as being mostly washt off from the Edges of those pieces into which the dissolved Earth was shattered and consequently would rather have prevented and hindred than helped or promoted the Earth's fruitfulness And therefore the Geographer notes that the mud of the aforesaid Rivers which makes the fields over which they flow is not coarse and dry like that which would have been eaten off of the verges of the terrestrial Fragments but of a softer and fatter sort Deferre autem flumina eum qui mollior sit pinguior ex quo campi fiunt Id. Ib. And then as to the Nile that the Mud it brings down upon the Land of Egypt is light and soft and fat and so fit to impregnate it with a strong Fertility we may properly infer from the sweetness of its Waters For as Diodorus reports they are the sweetest of all that are in the whole Earth Which made that famous General Piscenius Niger who contended with Septimus Severus for the Empire reprimand his Souldiers for hankering after wine and for muttering for the want of it when they might drink their fill of this pleasant Stream Tho it is well known that an ingenious French Writer I mean Duval in his Geogr. Vnivers ascribes both the Muddiness Fruitfulness and Overflow of it to its Nitrous Quality His words are to this purpose It has lately been found out that the Nitre wherewith the Nile abounds so much is the cause of all those wonderful Effects and that being heated by the sun it mingles it self with the water renders it troubled swells it and makes it pass over its Banks But yet concerning this noble River it is as well known that as sometimes it has not increased at all as in the tenth and eleventh year of Cleopatra against the downfal and the death of that Princess and her admired Anthony and as sometimes it is defective in its increase to lamentable failures in the usual Products of that plentiful Country So if at any time it happens to exceed in its increment but two or three Cubits that excess is at once both a clear Prognostic and a certain Cause of a dearth or scarcity in the ensuing year But then that such a Deluge as the Theory supposes it being Universal and of long continuance and made of lean subterraneous water and full of dead and harsh and heavy soil fetcht off from numberless pieces of the broken Earth should occasion barrenness for a considerable time in the post-diluvian World is but reasonable to conclude Nor lastly does this part of the Objection lie against the common Explication of the Deluge with such force as it does against the Theory's Explication of it For tho a General Flood overtopping the Mountains must have left mud and slime and filth behind it yet where the water rise upon an Earth that remained unbroken they could be nothing in quantity to what they must have been where the Earth was dissolv'd and fell all to pieces and where the water boiling up from under these Fragments and then falling down again violently upon them raged amongst them with lasting incessant and unimaginable turbulence As a Fifth Reason against the Earth's being drowned by its being dissolved Disc p. 292 the Excepter added this All the Buildings erected before the Flood would have been shaken down or else overwhelmed Here as to the City Joppa which is the main hinge upon which the Objection turns he Answers it is incertain whether it was built before the Flood â— 64. But besides the authorities of Mela and Solinus cited for it it is generally granted to be so ancient and none that speak of its Antiquity take upon them to deny it Nor will the Fiction concerning Perseus and Andromeda subvert the receiv'd opinion in this matter For as many Fables are made out of true stories so many again are tacked to them â— 64 65. He goes on However suppose the ruines of one Town remain'd after the Flood does this prove that the Earth was not dissolv'd I do not doubt but there were several tracts of the Earth much greater than that Town that were not broken all to pieces by their fall Had that tract whereon Joppa stood continued whole yet falling down so very low a mile at least by the force of its weight it would have suffer'd such a shock as could not but have levell'd its Buildings with the ground Thus very good houses are oftentimes shatter'd down in Earthquakes meerly by the concussion or shaking of the Ground tho it never breaks And truly if only the bare ruines of it had remained which
borrows from D. Cartes who supposes there were Original Salt Particles and therefore why may there not be Original Oily Particles But if D. Cartes's authority must determine the Question it will go clearly on our side Mete C. 1. §. 3. For he allows not Oil to be primaeval p. 7. Another Reason he brings is the vast Quantity of Oleagineous matter that is disperst every where in Vegetables in Animals and many sorts of Earths But this matter may be bred in them respectively Thus we see living Creatures grow fat by Nourishment And many Plants turn the sap they draw into very Oil it self so that we need but extract it out of their Leaves or fruits As other Animals again breed Milk and other Vegetables Wine Cyder c. And so in some Earths oleagineous Particles may be generated as others again are impregnated with Particles of a Sulphureous Nitrous or Aluminous Nature And Chymists find other sorts of Particles disperst every where which I believe the Answerer will scarce yield to have been Original in his Chaos Thirdly it is alledged that these Oyly particles were Original p. 7. because they were principles of Fertility to the New World and so could not be extracted from the Inferior Regions in time forasmuch as that would require a process of many Ages Why therefore it is the more likely that the Fatness necessary to the Earth's Fruitfulness was innate or bred in it And we may justly look upon it as a gracious effect of that Divine Benediction pronounced upon the Earth Gen. 1.11 by virtue of which it could not but be indued with all the principles necessary to Fertility And yet were it needful this Oleagineous matter might be both easily and quickly setcht up from the Inferior Regions For tho in a natural Course it could not be derived thence without Difficulty and a process of many ages yet by extraordinary Providence it might be drawn up with greatest Expedition as well as Facility even in a very few Hours or as we are taught a great Work might be done in another case in a very few Minutes Lastly He argues that Oily particles might be Original because according to D. Cartes they were tenuious and branchy too gross to be Air p. 7. and too light for Water It shall not be said that they are therefore a Compound of both tho it may happen so in other Cases For some Bodies seem to be made of a middle Constitution betwixt those which on both sides stand next them in nearest degrees of Physical approximation And consequently their Nature is but a medium participationis or a composition of such things as border closest upon them and have the truest Affinity to them as approaching nighest them in a kind of congenial likeness of Substance and Qualities And certain it is that some Oyls by keeping dissolve into Liquors so thin and watry that they will not burn if that will give any countenance to the thought that water may be an Ingredient of Oyl Tho it is worth noting Prin. Phi. l. 4. § 76. that D. Cartes in the very Section which the Answerer cites gives an account how and out of what Oyl is made and so is against its being Orginal And since the Answerer refers to him twice in this point let Him till we can find a fitter Judge decide the Controversie And indeed the very figure of Oily Particles offers it self as an Argument against their Primaevity For they are supposed to be branchy and whither can their Ramosity be so well imputed as to the Pores of that Matter wherein they were generated which being of such a Shape cast them as Molds in which they were formed into the like fashion Of this Opinion is that ingenious Philosopher Mr. Rohault Tract Phys Par. 3. c. 5. but therefore far from believing that Oily Liquors or Particles were ever Primaeval The Second thing which the Answerer observes to be charged with Precariousness Answ p. 8. is the Separation of this Oily Matter in due time so as to make a mixture and concretion with the Terrestial Particles which fell from above And this Objection he adds was both made and answered by the Theorist Eng. The. p. 58 59. Now the Substance of his Answer was this That the Mass of the Air was many thousand times greater than the Water and would proportionably require a greater time to be purify'd the Particles in the Air having a far longer way to come to the watry Mass than the Oily Particles had to rise to the Surface of it That there might be Degrees of littleness and lightness in the Earthy Particles so as many of them might float in the Air a good while And lastly that the Air and the Water might begin to purify at the same time But this Answer is short and insufficient and therefore no notice was taken of it formerly But since we are urged with it now to shew its lightness and incompetency we Reply to it as follows First That the Air being a Finer Element than the Water would begin its Purgation sooner than That Secondly Tho the Air was far greater than the Water yet the Terrestial Particles in it might sooner reach the Water than the Oily ones in the Water could rise to the Surface of that for sundry Reasons As 1st because the Earthy Particles moved downward and the Oily ones upward and caeteris paribus the motion downward would be the swiftest 2ly Because the Earthy Particles were more dry and less clammy than the Oily ones and their unctious moisture by rendring them slimy would make them sluggish and slacken their ascent 3ly Because the Air was a thin and yielding Medium through which the Earthy Particles would more nimbly sift down than the Oily ones could wriggle up through the Water which was more thick and gross 4ly Because the very Make of the Oily and Watry Particles is such that it would help towards their mutual Complication which would retard their separating and consequently the Aeral Mass would begin to refine before the Liquid one and the Terrestial Particles would have reacht the Water before the Oily matter was risen For the Particles of Oil are of a ramous Figure and therefore about them the long and flexible Particles of Water would * That Watry Particles are naturally apt to lay hold of Oily ones appears from the way of cleansing Vessels into the Pores of which the Particles of Oil have in sinuated or soaked For out of those their lurking holes or little fastnesses there is no fetching them but by the help of Water And the same is clear from the Chymists Method of distilling Oils out of dry Bodies For in order to that they first steep and macerate them in Water without which Preparative there would be no extracting the Oily Matter fairly by any force of Elicitation But when through heat the Water ascends in its fumes it snatches up the Particles of Oil and
makes that evaporate together with it self be apt in some measure to twine and wind themselves Especially at that time when they both upon the Secretion of the Chaos met and encountred one another in single naked Particles before ever they were once united in Bodies or at all incorporated in their respective Masses And altho by reason of their mutual Lubricity the Watry Particles could not long keep fast the Oily ones about which they cling'd with tortuous flexures yet they might considerably check and protract their separation and ascent it requiring some time for the Oily Particles to extricate themselves and get loose from those little watry Wreaths wherewith they were involv'd and hampered Eng. Theor. p. 55 56 57. Thirdly the liquid Mass of the Chaos being a Collection of all Liquors that belong to the Earth every one of these would at first be foul and muddy and their respective Impurities must be discharged Particularly the Water being a vast Body would have sent down its grosser parts in great abundance of Sedimental Stuff Now this Plenty of Sediment was thrown off by the Water either before or after the Oily Matter was risen or in the very Rising of it Not after it was risen for this Sediment being more earthy and so more heavy than the Oil it must be allowed to separate as soon as that or rather somewhat before it And yet if it were discharged and sank before the Oily matter was risen or when it was rising how could it chuse but sweep away that and carry it down together with it self to the Bottom of the Abyss Or say these Dreggs should have been too weak or too light to have overpowred the Oil alone and to have sunk it with its self yet it would certainly have arrested its motion upwards By which means the Terrestrial Particles above taking the advantage thus given would have come poudring down a main fastest at first and also the heaviest of them into the bare Waters and so joining their inconceivable Luggage to the sedimental Clog already hang'd upon the Oily Matter would have quite over-set it and weighed it down to the Interior Earth And this piece of work will appear the more fecible and easy to be done if we consider that it might be half or better than half effected before For all the Bodies or Elements of the Chaos being of an Original or Primaeval Nature and not one compounded or made out of another we must suppose that before the very first resolution of it they did coexist in the Chaos in their several Principles or Particles tho they were not locally severed and made into distinct and specifick Masses till its Separation So that at the same time that there were Earthy Particles there were Oily ones too disperst throughout thē whole Capacity of the Chaos And consequently when the grosser earthy Particles gathered towards the Center of the Chaos They salling through the whole Mass even through every little point or line of it from its Superficies downward where these Oily Particles were diffused and lay in their way they must needs catch hold of the greatest part of them the rather for their being of a viscuous quality and bear them down with themselves Especially they descending in so vast a Quantity as to be able to constitute a central Earth Lastly in case the Terrestrial Principle of the Chaos would not thus have hindred the Oily Principle from doing its part towards the Formation of the Theory's Earth yet then the Liquid Part of the Chaos would have hindred the Terrestrial one in the same Work For how is it possible that an Ocean of Water and Oil should strain through the whole Circumference of the Chaos settling down towards the middle of it and leave earthy Particles behind floating in the Air and that in measures sufficient upon their Descent to compose so immense an Earth as ours Let the Air be filled never so full of dust yet a thin Mist presently lays it all And such a prodigious Sea of Water falling through the entire space of the Chaos could not miss of the like effect upon the Earthy Particles then in the Air especially that Water containing so much Oil in it For by the Virtue of its Unctiousness in conjunction with its Gravity it would have cleansed the Air of Earthy Particles tho very throughly incorporate with it as Izing-glass clarifies faeculent Liquors by carrying their Dregs to the bottoms of their Vessels And therefore whereas it is alledged in the pretended Answer that through degrees of Littleness and Lightness in the Earthy Particles many of them might float in the Air a good while Eng. Theor. p. 59. we may rather think there would have been very few of them if any at all left there And then where would have been matter for the first Earth suppos'd to be form'd upon the Surface of the Abyss So we pass to the Third Precariousness Which is concerning the Quantity and Proportion of these Particles P. 8. says the Answerer And from this Charge he seeks to free himself by demanding to this purpose Ib. In what Theory or Hypothesis are Liquors Gag'd and just Measures and Proportions of each accounted for But then it may be demanded again what Theory or Hypothesis has so much need of just Measures and Proportions of these as his and consequently so much reason to account for them Ib. Then he enquires particularly has the great Philosopher meaning D. Cartes in his Hypothesis of 3 Elements Or in his several Regions of the Vnform'd Earth defin'd the Quantity and Dimensions of each Or in the Mineral Particles and Juices does he determine the Quantity of them Nor is there the like reason why he should For that great Philosophers Hypothesis and this little ones are not of the like Nature they stand not upon the like Foundations D. Cartes publickly owns his Hypothesis to be a meer Hypothesis indeed And tho for the better * Quinimo etiam ad res naturales melius explicandas earum Causas altius hic repetam quam ipsas unquam extitisse existimem Non enim dubium est quin Mundas ab initio fuerit creatus cum omni sua perfectione ita ut in eo Sol Terra Lana Stellae extiterint Prin. Par. 3. Sect. 45. explaining of effects in Nature he searcht deeper for their Causes than they ever lay yet he declares that he did not doubt but the World was at first created with all its Perfection so that in it there was a Sun and Earth and Moon and Stars And therefore here was no need of having his 3 Elements apportion'd in their Quantity or accurately adjusted to one another because by his own Confession there was no World to be form'd out of them Eng. Theor p. 85. But is it thus with the Hypothesis of the Theory No no that 's a Reality as its Author tells us And it must needs be so according
can be expected but Extraordinary providence should be brought in next And so it is with a witness Ib. in these words The Angels whose ministery we own openly upon these grand occasions could as easily have held the Ark afloat in the Air as on the Water But because Angels could do this may we argue from thence with good consequence that they did do it and from their power to act it conclude they effected it Without question they could have kept Judea dry when all the rest of the World was drown'd yet we know this was not done But the Ark however was held afloat in the Air by them For it follows the Ark being an Emblem of the Church GOD certainly did give his Angels charge over it that they should bear it up in their hands that it might not be dash'd against a stone Surely this Hypothesis must needs be very strong and lasting that has so much miracle and ministery of Angels to support it And then what matter for Philosophy tho the Theory is to be chiefly Philosophical Eng. Th. p. 6. when it may stand much better without it But the same pen writes thus in another place Eng. The. p. 98. Noah and his Family were sav'd by water so as the water which destroy'd the rest of the World was an instrument of their Conservation inasmuch as it bore up the Ark and kept it from that impetuous shock which it would have had if it had either stood upon dry land when the Earth fell or if the Earth had been dissolv'd without any water on it or under it Now if Noah and his Family were saved by water if the water which destroy'd the rest of the world was an instrument of their Conservation if it conserv'd them as it bore up the Ark and if it so bore it up as that it kept it from an impetuous shock which otherwise it would have had when the Earth fell how could the Answerer say there was no necessity that the Ark should be afloat before the Earth broke and now make the conservation of Noah and his Ark at the fall of the Earth to be wholly Angelical In short the Theorist affirms that mankind was saved by water that bore up the Ark and kept it from an impetuous shock when the Earth fell it having the Advantage of a River or of a Dock or Cistern wherein to float The Answerer that there was no necessity that the Ark should be afloat before the Earth broke because the Angels could hold it in the Air and they having charge over it did bear it up in their hands The Question therefore might be put which of the two speaks truest But e'en let them agree the difference as they please Another Contradiction and reconcile the plain Contradiction between them But for the Ark's being afloat in a River or Dock or Cistern before the Earth fell he has this pretence Those things were premis'd in the Theory Answ p. 62. only to soften the way to men that are hard of belief in such extraordinary matters Truly these matters are very Extraordinary and the way to believing them had need be well softned But when that is softned if so be men are not softned withal and made extraordinarily soft too they will hardly ever believe them at last And pray what are the Extraordinary matters to the belief of which the Arks being afloat in a River or Dock or Cistern was to soften the way They seem to be the saving of Noah and the saving of his Family and the saving of the Ark when the Earth fell But then in truth these things could not be those matters For we are here told at the same time that there was no necessity of the Arks being afloat in water in order to these things and that Noah and his Family and the Ark were saved by the Ministery of Angels And to the belief of the Angels saving them such a mollification would be vain and needless inasmuch as every one who believes their Existence believes also what the Answerer says of them that they could as easily have held the Ark afloat in the Air as in the Water And so what was premised in the Theory of this softning Nature and what the Excepter is blamed for not noting was of as little use as it is of truth And to shut up this particular by calling in this extraordinary help of the Angels he renders the Rains at the Deluge the principal Cause of it Gen. 7.4 wholly unnecessary For tho at first he would have them to save the Ark by setting it afloat yet now we see there was no necessity of that And then if the Earth fell into the Abyss and by its fall made the waters of it so raging and destructive to all things as he represents them there could be no more need of forty days rain in order to the Flood than of forty Candles to give light to the Sun And so GOD did a great work to no end or purpose Especially this 40 days rain following the Disruption Which happened the very first day that Noah entred the Ark. A Third Reason against the Floods coming in by the Dissolution of the Earth was this The Earth or dry Land of this Terraqueous Globe would in likelihood have been of another Figure than what it now bears Disc p. 289. But instead of answering it Answ p. 63. he speaks against a change in the Poles and Circles of the Earth a needless trouble and occasion'd by his own oversight For had he but lookt into the Errata's he might have seen there that those Parentheses upon which he grounded what he says should have been left out And in case he did peruse the Errata's and observe that these Parentheses were marked for such I may say of him as he said of the Excepter it must be a wilful dissimulation not to take notice of them Ib. p. 62. And if he had taken notice of them as Errata's he need not have troubled himself farther about them And so we pass to The Fourth Reason Had the Earth been dissolved to make the Flood Read Disc p. 290 291 292. its Dissolution would have brought it into lamentable barrenness For the dry and dead Soil would have been turned up by whole Countries at once and where the outward part of the Earth continu'd outward still the top of the Ground would have been rinsed off by the vehement workings and incessant beatings of the Flood upon it And then the furious commotions and aestuations of the Waters washing off an abundance of Earth from the innumerable Fragments which fell into the Abyss and this Earthy stuff being carried into all places and spread thick upon the Ground and mix'd and incorporated with much other Filth it would have hardned upon the going off of the Flood into a Crust or Cap on the surface of the Earth and so have been very destructive to its Fruitfulness It is answered first
two Cubits of Quails could cover this Camp then fifteen Cubits of Water might cover these Mountains And as for the Tops of the Mountains they are no where said to be covered any more than the top of the Camp was But he says the Tops of the Mountains were discover'd Answ p. 70. when the Waters began to decrease Gen. 8.5 Is not that a plain demonstration that they were cover'd before and cover'd with those Waters To this Objection also an answer was given by the Excepter Disc Ch. 16. §. 5. However to make it more full we are content to recite part of what was formerly said and to add somewhat new as occasion requires We say therefore that the tops of the Mountains being discovered upon the decrease of the Waters is no demonstration that they were covered with them for they might be discovered by their Emergency out of darkness Upon that Answer he brings this Quaery Answ p. 73. Where finds he this Account 't is neither in the Text nor in Reason It was fairly gathered out of both as plainly appears in our Discourse The holy Text we went upon was Gen. 8. ult Where day being settled upon the recovering World the very settling of it then implies that in time of the Flood the Earth was strangely benighted And for a Reason was suggested the Exclusion of Frost Which had not the Air been very thick thick enough to hide the Tops of the Mountains from the Eyes of men would have seiz'd the Waters with exceeding vehemence and have thereby hindred the so speedy drying of the Earth But he goes on in his way of objecting If it was always so dark and the Tops of the Mountains and Rocks naked and prominent every where Ib. how could the Ark avoid them in that darkness And could it by an ordinary Providence have avoided them in the Light For tho the H. GHOST in that Description which he was pleas'd to give of the Ark descends even to Particulars and that to the very Door and the Window of it yet He hints not the least concerning a Rudder belonging to it And being destitute of that there could be nothing whereby to turn or govern it but at all times it must be left to drive right on whatever Dangers tho great and visible might come in its way Or say it had an Helm yet what Pilot without inspiration could have steer'd its Course safely in those perilous new-made Seas upon Earth Where as Rocks and Banks and Flats and Sands were thick set and innumerable so there was not so much as one Buoy or Sea-mark which by showing any of them might help to shun them And as these dangers according to the Common Hypothesis would have been equal when first this Vessel was set afloat so according to the Theory they would have been much greater He continues to object Ib. I see no reason to imagine that there would be darkness after the forty days rain For he the Excepter says the Atmosphaere was never so exhausted of Vapours and never so thin as when the waters were newly come down Tho the Atmosphaere was never so exhausted of Vapours and never so thin as at that time in the vast Body or general Comprehension of it upwards yet here below the Air might still be foggy and thick So we are often invelop'd with caliginous Mists in this lower Region next the Earth when let them but disperse and wear off and the heaven above is most serene and in the Skie there 's nothing but glorious day He objects still Ib. p. 74. It was in the Tenth month that they the Mountains begun to be seen when the Waters were decreas'd 't was therefore the Waters not the gross Air that hindred the sight of them before For if according to the method of the Excepter the Deluge begun to decrease after the first forty days rain by the Sun 's resolving waters into Vapours and Exhalations this in proportion must lessen the waters of the Deluge But we do not read in Moses of any abatement in the Deluge till the end of one hundred and fifty days Gen. 8.3 which is four Months after this term Nor do we imagine that there was any considerable abatement of the Waters till that time For after the Flood was come to its height it was necessary it should stand there a good while the better to effect that fatal destruction of the Animal World for which it was sent Yet during the time that the Flood was thus Stationary we suppose that GOD did work no Miracle for we read of none to weaken Nature in its force and put by its proper Operations And so the Sun which had then a more than ordinary power upon the outragious and prevailing Waters as shining on them through a thinner Medium than ever yet he did could not but turn them a great pace into Misty Vapours and Exhalations And these ascending swiftly and copiously to replenish the Atmosphaere so lately emptied by excessive Resolution might render the Mountains as Mists always do quite invisible at a little Distance Yet this work being done only by Nature's hand or to use the Answerer's elegant style by the Sun 's setting his Engines awork tho it was carried on for several Months the diminution of the Waters I say might be inconsiderable So inconsiderable as not to be worth the Spirits notice And withal so ineffectual that if some better course had not been taken the Waters would have remain'd a very long time upon the drowned Earth beyond the hundred and fifty days mention'd without any considerable degree of abatement For if in the hundred and ten days succeeding those in which the rains fell the Waters went up in misty Vapours towards restoring the Atmosphaere to its lost Consistency in such a quantity as to sink the Flood suppose but one or two Cubits tho this reeking evaporation might so darken the Air as to hide the Mountains yet how little would such a diminution of the Deluge be taken notice of by Heaven or how little would it contribute to drying of the Earth And therefore to speed the work which by the strength of Nature went on but slowly GOD made use of a certain Wind Gen. 8.1 as an extraordinary Instrument And by this added at length to the Attractive influence of the Sun the Waters asswaged so very fast that as the SPIRIT notes on the first day of the Tenth Month the Tops of the Mountains were seen Gen. 8.5 And whereas the sacred Story makes the appearance of these Mountain-tops to follow the decrease of the Deluge-waters nothing could be done more properly according to the tenour of this new Hypothesis For in case the Waters had not been decreased and so decreased as to have refill'd the Atmosphaere with Vapours and so decreased as to have dampt the attractive power of the sun and so decreased as to be drawn so low and grown so gross and foul and heavy as to
resist the attenuating force of the Wind aforesaid these tops of the Mountains could not have shown themselves as yet For had not the Waters been thus decreased they would still have gone away into Vapours and Exhalations at such a rate as that the air by them would have been so bemisted and the Mountains by that would have been so obscured that the tops of them could not have been so soon discovered And why the tops of them were discerned before their lower and their larger parts Disc p. 342. an account has been already given Answ p. 74. Lastly as to this matter he objects That the whole notion of spending the waters of the Deluge by Evaporation hath no foundation in Scripture or Reason But in short it is founded upon both 1st Upon Reason For how reasonable is it that Waters should be turned into Vapours it being a thing most natural And how reasonable that they should be so turned at an extraordinary rate where the Sun had an extraordinary power and when to the force of the Sun was join'd the assistance of a mighty Wind 2ly Upon Scripture For their Returning off the Earth continually Gen. 8.3 might be but their returning into that Principle out of which they were made namely into Vapours See Disc p. 340 341. And that Expression the Waters were going and decreasing Gen. 8.5 may be understood of their going away quite by a wasting or diminishing of them And the learned Schindler makes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that very place to signify this very thing And so the Notion was not only founded upon Scripture and Reason but moreover upon good Authority And whereas the Answerer would have the first of these two cited Texts to denote the local motion of the Waters or their returning to the place from whence they came Answ p. 76. this they did do when they were resolved into Vapours and were retracted into the Atmosphaere whence they descended Tho such a Return they could not be so fully capable of according to the Theory's Hypothesis the inclos'd Abyss being fill'd up in a great measure by the fallen Earth And whereas he says farther that then the Dove 's returning Ib. p. 77. was her returning into her principles that is into an Egg It is said expressly of the Dove that she returned unto him Noah into the Ark Gen. 8.9 and neither her's nor the Raven's return into Eggs could have been agreeable to Nature or Reason or have been of any manner of use Tho as nothing was more rational and nothing more natural so nothing could possibly be more useful than the Evaporation of the Waters both to the Earth and Atmosphaere at once For by their thus returning or going away into Vapours the one was dried by their reascending the other And so whereas he demands concerning the Evaporation of the Waters where does he find this notion in Scripture Answ p. 74. I might better put the like question to him where does he in Scripture find the vital Assertions of his Theory Which yet for the relation it has to Scripture he calls Theoria sacra the holy Theory tho in sundry things it be inconsistent with Scripture and opposite to it I must take my leave of this point with remarking an Vntruth which he lays upon the Excepter Another Untruth Answ p. 73◠li. 24◠It is this He gives him the Sun a miraculous power to draw up waters But where does he ascribe such a power to him The Answerer must show it or else incur the Censure of a false Accuser Indeed that the Sun has power to exhale Water now by agitating its Particles and so dilating and putting them into a flying motion is not to be doubted Nor is it to be question'd but this his power of Exhalation was most operative just after the full Rise of the Deluge For then the Atmosphaere having newly suffered a thorow Solution of its Continuity and the stock of its Vapours being greatly exhausted and the whole Earth except the higher parts of the Mountains being covered with the Flood his Beams having now a freer Passage through a finer Air could not but shoot down much more forcibly upon the diffused Water and agitating it more vehemently make Vapours to rise at a far greater Rate than they us'd to do And these Vapours being once raised by the action of the Sun would immediately take wing and fly into the empty Atmosphaere above there being such room and reception for them And as fast as some gave way others following while the void Atmosphaere suckt them up as it were and helpt them to ascend by its readiness to receive them an excessive plenty of misty Vapours must needs go up in continued streams from the steaming surface of the rarefying Water Thus I confess the Sun had power to draw up Water and power to attract it very copiously at the time we speak of till confused Nature came to be resettled in its first Order Yea so plentifully did he draw up Water in that juncture and such a mistiness thereby did he cause in the Air as he never did do before nor never in likelihood shall do again because there never was nor will be the like reasons for it But that the Excepter gave him miraculous power to do it is incumbent upon the Answerer who was pleas'd to say it to make it out A miraculous Wind indeed the Excepter owned Dsc p. 341. sent on purpose to hasten the work of drying up the Water Hic ventus non tam naturali quam divina visiccavit aquas a Lapide in loc Gen. 8.1 which in course of Nature could never have been done in so short a time if it could have been done at all but as for a miraculous influence of the Sun as it would have been needless in conjunction with such a Wind so he knows of none nor did he ever think of any But besides all this at length he would find out an Insufficiency in the new Hypothesis as if the measure of its Waters could not reach to the Execution which was necessary to be done upon the Animal World For whereas an Vniversal Destruction was made by the Flood Answ p. 71. I would gladly know says he how this could be in a fifteen-Cubit Deluge For Birds would naturally fly to the tops of Trees And Beasts would retire by degrees to Mountains Men also could not fail to retire into Mountains Or the upper stories of their houses might be sufficient to save them Or an house seated upon an Eminency or a Castle upon a Rock would always be a safe retreat from this diminutive Deluge Ib. 72. And those that were upon the Sea in Ships would never come in danger This is the substance of the Answerers Objections where he reflects upon the incompetency of the new Hypothesis in regard of the Quantity or height of those Waters of which it supposes the flood to be
made But how easily are they taken off For the common unmountainous Surface of the Earth See Disc p. 301. being by necessary and providential contrivance made inequal hence it will follow that when the Waters were fifteen Cubits higher than the highest parts of that common Surface which is the Fundamental Assertion of the new Hypothesis they might be forty or fifty or an hundred or two hundred Cubits higher than the general ordinary Plain of the Earth And when fifteen Cubits Water above the highest parts of the Earths common surface would drown the Level of it generally to so prodigious a pitch instead of a diminutive as the Answerer calls it here must be a most dreadful and destructive Deluge both to Mankind and all Living Creatures For put case that the Birds upon the rise of the waters flew unto trees yet where are the trees whose tops are an hundred or two hundred Cubits high Or say the tops of some trees stood out of the Waters as growing upon the highest parts of the Earth's common Surface yet could the poor Fowls be able to roost there during the time of the whole forty days Rain and then on to the end of the Flood And grant that Men and Beasts retired to the Mountains when the Waters began to swell and threaten them Yet then they were great Mountains to which they betook themselves or else they were lesser ones If they were great ones See Disc c. 16. §. 6. they could not run to a more improper Refuge If they were lesser ones how could they possibly subsist there without Shelter or Sustenance till the Deluge was drawn off and the Earth dried up And the like may be said of those in the upper Stories of their houses Admit that the Flood did not reach them yet how could they live there to come down again at last when their Domestick Stores in their Cellars c. were all overflowed and were so to continue for a great while And as for them in Castles and high situate Habitations if any were seated above the Water-mark of the Deluge how could they shift for food and fewel and keep themselves from famishing for a year together For either they were well furnisht with Provisions or they were not If they were not they could not hold out If they were it was because a number was to be maintain'd by them And many will as soon devour much as a few spend a little And where is the Castle that being well stockt with men as well us stor'd with necessaries which commonly go together does not fall into want before a year comes about where there is no kind of Forage or provisionary Recruits And therefore these Castles on Rocks as to the Answerer's purpose are but Castles in the air for being on every side so surrounded with water they who were in them would be starved to death And methinks there is one thing which seems to insinuate that a good part of the Animal World might perhaps come to an end thus By being driven to such streights by the overflowing waters as to be famished or starved to death The thing is this Tho the Instrument of Vengeance upon the wicked World was an Universal Flood and tho the proper way of that Instrument's killing is by drowning yet in all the sacred story of the Deluge it is no where said of men and living creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were drowned but all-a-long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were destroyed As if the SPIRIT would give us to understand that all the living Creatures which perisht at the Flood were not directly overwhelm'd and absorpt by it but by means of its Waters were forced to die very many of them and were fearfully destroyed some other way even that which we have hinted And then lastly as to Ships I will not deny that there were any before the Flood for all I find Hornius does it positively in his Introduction Noachi aevo nullae adhuc naves in Noah 's Age there were not as yet any ships tho could we allow them at the Deluge to be as good as ours which are the best in the World yet the persons in them at that time must needs be in most imminent Dangers For at first for forty days together they were to sail in darkness And after that for several Months in such foggy Mists as obscured the Tops of the vastest Mountains By the increase of the Waters also the whole World became one boundless Ocean And the Sea by that means having lost its Shores the Mariners skill would be strangely lost or non-plust too For instead of finding the Seas in their usual Figures and Chanels and of making their Ports at the wonted places and Distances wild Waters would lead them into unknown Rodes and trapan them on to land And there being Rocks in great plenty to split them Hills to stave them Banks to strand them Buildings to annoy them Woods and Forrests to hamper and intangle them their dangers being new they could not apprehend them and being so many and various and unexpected how could they avoid them And then we must consider farther yet that Shipping at the Flood was very far short of that strength and perfection which now it has attain'd to The first considerable Vessel that we read of I think was the Argo And indeed some necessary Appendages of a Ship were not found out till about the time that she was equip'd for Colchis For famous Daedalus who invented the Mast and Main-yard and his Son Icarus who invented the Sails lived then Typhis also who invented the Rudder was one of those Heroes which attended Jason when the young Gallants of Thessaly or the flower of its Nobility went along with him in the Argonautick Expedition And yet this Ship as Pliny tells us in the Six and fiftieth Chapter of the Seventh Book of his Natural History was but a Gally And he adds which it will not be wide of our purpose to recite That Troughs or flat Planks were used by King Erythras to cross from one Island to another in the Red Sea That in the British Ocean were made certain Wicker-Boats of twigs covered with Leather and stitcht round about In Nilus Boats of Paper Cane-reed and Rushes That the Erythraeans made the Bireme or Gally with two Banks of Oars Aminacles the Corinthian the first Trireme The Carthaginians the Quadrireme Nesichton the Salaminian the first Quinquereme And so they were raised by Zenagoras of Syracuse by Mnesigeton by Alexander the great by Ptolomy Soter by Demetrius Son of Antigonus by Ptolomy Philadelphus and by Ptolomy Philopater till they came to fifty Banks or Courses of Oars on a side So that here we have an account of Two things not unworthy of our notice The First is the low and mean and rude Beginnings of Shipping In some places it commenc'd in Troughs or Hollowed trees So it did in Egypt Lib. 16.
to his following Expressions To speak the truth P. 149. this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis P. 150. The Theory riseth above the Character of a bare Hypothesis Ib. We must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory P. 274. The Theory carries its own light and proof with it And most fit it is therefore that this Theory being brought to the Test should approve it self far beyond others And an Earth being formed out of a strange Chaos the Creature of this Theory and according to the Laws of its Hypothesis as fit it is that the Ingredients of this Chaos should upon enquiry be found well proportion'd to one another beyond the Elements of D. Cartes's Hypothesis which arrogates no such certainty to it self but openly renounces it Yet if we compare D. Cartes's Hypothesis in the principal Instance here alledged with that of the Theorist we shall find it will acquit it self much better than his For suppose the World had been really to have been form'd out of the Cartesian Elements Yet upon examination it will appear that they were less liable to just Exceptions upon account of their possible Disproportionateness than the Chaos of the Theory upon the same account in regard of its Ingredients For of these 3 Elements the entire Vniverse was to be composed So that if they had all of them been more or less in quantity the Universe would only have had the larger or straiter Bounds And if any of them singly had been excessive or defective nothing worse would have followed upon this but that the several Bodies made out of them respectively must then have been proportion'd accordingly Thus if there had been more or less of the 1st Element there must have been more or greater or fewer or lesser Suns If there had been more or less of the 2d Element there must have been bigger or lesser Vortices If more or less of the 3d Element there must have been more or less of Terrestrial Matter in being So that the worst result from an excessive quantity of any one of the three Elements aforesaid would have been but an alteration in the Great World or at most but an inconvenience here and there in some parts of it no way detrimental or pernicious to the whole But as to this Earth of ours the case would have been quite otherwise For had not the Materials of that been duly proportion'd but one left to exceed and predominate over the other this redundance or inequality in measure would have been of very fatal Consequence That is it would have caused a miscarriage in the production of the Earth and have ruin'd the whole work which Nature was about And therefore in making the Chaos into an Earth there was absolute necessity as of Regularity of Process in its Formation so of due proportion in the Ingredients of its Constitution otherwise it could never have been brought to Perfection From D. Cartes the Answerer turns to the Excepter and thinks to choak him with an example of his own Does the Animadverter in his new Hypothesis concerning the Deluge P. 9. give us the just Proportions of his Rock-water and the just Proportions of his Rain-water that concurred to make the Deluge And does the Answerer think that the like accurate Proportion of things is needful to destroy a World that is necessary to form or rear one Yet here a World was to be destroyed only to be destroyed by being drowned Now supposing the destructive Flood was to rise out of Rock-water and Rain-water it mattered not as to the Destruction they were to bring on if both were of equal Quantity or which and how much one exceeded the other so they were together sufficient for the Work But what says the Answerer farther I find no Calculations there that is in the Animadverter's Hypothesis but general Expressions that one sort of Water was far greater than the other and that may be easily presumed concerning the Oily Substance and the Watry in the Chaos Here he must be minded of one of these two things that is to say either of Shuffling or of Mistaking First of Shuffling For he instanceth only in the Oily Substance and the Watry in the Chaos which he thought might shift pretty well together tho the one in Quantity exceeded the other But he knows there was a Terrestrial Substance too and what would have become of his Paradisiacal Earth which was to rise out of that if the Oil had not been fitly proportion'd to it If it had not been just enough that is to mix with the Earthy Particles and to make them into a good Soil For if it had been more than was sufficient to that purpose Disc p. 80. it would have overflowed them and rendred the Earth useless as a Greazy Clod. If less it would not have imbib'd them but they must have lain loose above in a fine and dry powder that would have made the Earth barren as an Heap of Dust And this in these very words the Excepter told the Theorist before Yet here we see the Earthy Substance is taken no notice of but rather slily shuffled out of the way Unless he intended that what he said of the Oily and Watry Substances in the Chaos should be meant of the Earthy one too And then Secondly he must be put in mind of a gross Mistake For tho in our Waters that Drowned the Earth one sort may easily be allowed to be greater than the other yet the same thing cannot be easily presumed concerning his Materials supposed to form it For Rock-water and Rain water were both alike for Drowning and so equally fitted to serve that End whereunto they were appointed and the Excess of one above the other could be no hindrance of the Effect they were design'd to produce Yea without such an Excess the Effect intended could never have been wrought according to our Hypothesis of the Flood But Oily Liquor and Earthy Particles are very different things out of a well proportion'd mixture of which the Earth it self was to be made And therefore to presume the * The Oil that is far greater than the Earthy substance or that unduly proportion'd to the Oil. one was far greater than the other is to presume they were not duly proportion'd or mixt together and consequently that the Earth could not be raised out of them But we must not forget the Close of this Paragraph which runs in these Words What Scruples therefore he raises in reference to the Chaos Answ p. 9. against the Theorist for not having demonstrated the proportions of the Liquors of the Abyss fall upon his own Hypothesis for the same or greater reasons And you know what the old verse says Turpe est Doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum Here he goes on in his shuffling or mistaking Way still For he speaks of Scruples raised in reference to the chaos only whereas this refers as well to
the Formation of the Earth Disc p. 80. And he proceeds upon the Proportions of the liquors of the Abyss only whereas our Scruples referred as well to the Earthy Matter Let that be included therefore as it ought and then what he says will in plain terms amount to thus much That tho the rain-Rain-water were far greater than the Rock-water yet there would have been greater reason why the Earth should not have been drowned than there would have been why the Earth should not have been formed tho the Oily substance had been far greater than the Earthy For the Scruples against the Theorist's Formation of the Earth can never for greater reason fall upon the Animadverter's Hypothesis concerning the Flood unless there be greater reason why vastly disproportionate Quantities of Oily and Earthy Substance should make an Earth than there is why the like disproportion'd Quantities of Rock-water and rain-Rain-water should make a Flood Now have we greater reason to think that a little Terrestial Matter mixt with a vast deal of Oily matter should compose the first Earth than we have to think that a little Rock-water mixt with a vast deal of rain-Rain-water should drown it There is great reason why one Tun of Rock-water mingled with an hundred thousand Tuns of rain-Rain-water should drown a good Garden But is there greater reason why one Tun of Earthy matter mingled with an hundred thousand Tuns of Oily matter should make a good Garden Soil I hope tho our Answerer be too great a Favourer of many Absurdities he will not be forward to assert this Rock-water and Rain-water were similar Causes and could not but with equal readiness of natural Disposition conspire to the effect of Drowning And tho the one in measure was much inferior to the other yet if both of them in conjunction were but sufficient for the Inundation that was enough for the Deluge depended chiefly upon the quantity of Water in general and not upon the Proportion of this or that kind of it in Particular But Oily matter and Earthy matter are Heterogeneal Substances and therefore could not so readily and immediately conspire to the Earth's Formation Some other Helps conducive thereunto were to come betwixt them and that and Concretion for one But then Concretion depending upon the due proportion of Ingredients Due Proportions of Oily and Earthy matter must be more needful in forming the Earth and so ought to be better demonstrated than the Proportions of Rock and rain-Rain-waters in raising the Flood And thus it is manifest that the Scruples raised against the Theorist by the Animadverter fall not upon his own Hypothesis for the same or greater reasons He might well therefore have spared his old verse which as appli'd here was as insignificant as an old Almanack But since in Civility to the Excepter he would needs send him it he cannot but in kindness give him a piece of it back again Letting him know that to reason or answer at such a rate as this Turpe est Doctori To make an end of this point of Precariousness The Excepter alledged Disc p. 81. That all these things that is to say The Ingredients of the Chaos and the Proportions of those Ingredients and the right timing of their Separations should have been more fully explained and clearly made out for a Personal reason which the Theorist made peculiar to himself Namely because he declared it to be his Judgment that things of moment of which nature was the Formation of his Earth are to be founded in aliquâ clarâ invictâ evidentiâ Lat. Theor. p. ◠on some clear and invincible evidence And what says he to this To it he gives a double Answer Answ p. 9. First that he set that sentence of which these words are part in opposition to such incertain Arguments as are taken from the interpretation of Fables and Symbols or from Etymologies and Grammatical Criticisms But is there nothing then of a middle nature betwixt Incertainties and invincible evidence No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Probable or Credible things to come between them that he must needs over-strain himself by taking such a Leap not over but into a Ditch For thus he plunges into this deep absurdity of tying himself up to such an evidence as he is not able to produce But therefore he gives in a Second Answer more to the purpose That this Sentence because it might be taken in too great an extent Ib. is left out in the Second Edition of the Theory It seems then it was not taken in a worse sence than it might be taken Having done with the Precariousness he comes next to the Vnphilosophicalness wherewith the Theory was charged Answ p. 9. The instance is the Descent of the Terrestrial Particles from the whole capacity of those vast spaces betwixt the Moon and us And how could this Phaenomenon fall in with a smooth Philosophie Explication said the Excepter For either the bounds of the Chaos Disc p. 82. and the Sphaere of its Gravity reached as high as the Moon or they did not If they did not how could these Particles ever come there at all or come down from thence If they did extend so high then as the Excepter quaeried at first so he does still why did not the Moon come down with those Particles It is answered by another Question Answ p. 10. why does not the Moon come down now the same reason which keeps her up now kept her up then But this Answer is no Answer for that which kept the Moon up then would have kept up these Particles too And so either there must have been no Earth composed or else the Moon as an overplus must have dropt into its composition I think I have read of a Bullet shot up so high that it never came down upon the Earth more And then how could those terrestrial Particles descend that were disperst in all that vast space contain'd between the heighth of the Bullets ascent and the orb of the Moon The Last Charge upon the Theory in this part was its being Anti-scriptural That is in making the Chaos Dark whereas the Scripture says there was light the first day He answers to this sence P. 10. That the Scripture does not say the Chaos was throughly illuminated the first Day That the light then was faint and feeble and yet might be sufficient to make some distinction of day and night in the Skies A fair Concession and enough to end this part of our Controversy Only we must observe that the Theorist in this matter has changed his Mind and now plainly retracts his former Doctrine For how could he think there was any light in the Skies the first Day when he taught that the Matter whereof the whole Earth was to be made was diffused in Particles through the Air See Discourse Chap. 3. Parag. last Vid. Lat. Theor. Edit 2. p. 229. and that after the grossest
more rarifi'd towards one Pole than towards another And we never said or thought they were But in his English Theory we read p. 229. that the Current of the waters from the Poles might in some places rest and be stopt and then it would spread it self into Lakes and rise till it grew to such an heighth as to be able by its force or weight to overflow and break loose again before it could pass farther Now in case the Current might thue be stopt and the obstruction be so great as to cause the Waters to swell into Lakes how easily might there be more or greater Lakes near to one of the Poles than the other And so how easily would the overweight of water have sunk the Earth down at the praeponderating Pole tho the Waters were no more rarify'd there than at the other That therefore being wide of the Mark he should have hit he sends another Arrow after it taken out of the Quiver of Philosophy Ib. The empty space betwixt the exterior Region of the Earth and the Abyss below would be fill'd with such gross vapors that it would be little purer than water and would stick to the Earth much closer than its Atmosphaere that is carried about with it But this shaft also tho levell'd more directly at it misses the intended Scope For if those Vapours were but a little purer than water yet look how much they were so and so much the weaker they would be and less able to keep the pendulous Earth in its Aequilibrious or even posture And that grossest Vapours are very much purer or thinner than water is evident from hence that they cannot sustain or buoy up a piece of light Cork whereas upon waters ships of greatest Burthen float and swim And tho the Atmosphaere be carried about with the Earth yet if that were inclosed with an oblong or Oval Orb of Earth this Orb would not sit half so fast and steddy upon that Sphaere of Vapours as it would do upon a Sphaere of Waters the Consistency of Water being many times as thick again as any Mass of Vapours can be in their natural Constitution The Second Query is this Granting there was such an Equinox in the first World Disc p. 187. Would not the natural day towards the latter end of that World have been longer than in the former periods of the same Yet that the days just before the Flood were of no unusual length is evident in the very Story of the Flood the Duration of which we find computed by Months consisting of Thirty days apiece Whereas says the Excepter had Days been grown longer fewer of them would have made a Month. This says the Answerer is a meer Blunder And he proves it thus If thirty days were to go to a Month Answ p. 28. whether the days were longer or shorter there must be thirty of them and the Scripture does not determine the length if the days Tho Scripture does not limit or account for the length of days expresly yet it does it implicitly and withal very plainly and intelligibly For it gives us to understand that days before the flood were of the same length that they are of now by informing us that months and years which were of the same length then that they are of at present were made up of the same numbers of days For how could there be just twelve Months in the Year at the time of the Deluge and thirty days in each of those Months if days then had not consisted as they do now of four and twenty hours a piece And as Providence has so ordered Nature that days which depend upon its Diurnal motion should be measured by Circumgyrations of the Earth So it has order'd likewise that Months which depend upon its Annual Motion should be measured by its progress in the Heavens And as it has so suted these Motions that the Earth while it makes a Month by running from one Sign in the Zodiack to another should turn about thirty times upon its own Axis and thereby make so many Days So it has taken care that each of these Circumrotations should be perform'd in four and twenty hours and consequently that every day should be just so long that thirty of them in way of round reckoning might compleat a Month. But now had the Circumgyrations of the Earth grown more slow towards the Deluge by such causes as the Excepter suggested so that every day had consisted of thirty hours suppose it is manifest that fewer than thirty days they being longer than formerly must have made a Month. Because then before the Earth could have turned round thirty times she would have been translated by her progressive motion from one Celestial Constellation to another and so the Month would have been consummated But to talk as the Answerer does that the Month should be lengthened by the days being so is a fearful Blunder indeed Tho as luck will have it still it falls upon himself For let the days by slackning of the Earth's Diurnal motion have been never so long yet its Annual motion continuing the same the Month must needs have kept its usual Length only fewer days would have made it up the very thing objected The Answerer therefore need not have been so officious as to undertake to teach the Excepter to speak which he was pleased to do in these Words Answ p. 30. I suppose that which he would have said and which he had confusedly in his mind was this That the Month would have been longer at the Flood than it was before The Answerer it seems had such a confused thought in his mind but the Excepter 't is plain was clear from it And truly had he been guilty of it he should have counted it a Meer Blunder For how could the Month be longer for the Earth's Circumgyrations being slower when the Month was measured by such a motion of the Earth as would have continu'd as swift as ever tho its Circumgyrations had been never so slack The Moon never turns circularly upon her own Center to make days and nights and yet she makes regular Months and Years by her Periodical and Synodical Courses And had the Circumgyrations of the Earth been never so swift at the Deluge or had they been never so slow or had they been none at all still the Months would have been the same that they were and neither longer nor shorter Tho then indeed they could not have consisted of so many days and nights following each other in an orderly succession because through want of the Earth's Diurnal motion there would have been no such vicissitude of them And since the Answerer took upon him to tell the Excepter what he had in his mind as he supposed the Replicant in requital of his kindness as well as in imitation of his Patern may suggest to him what he should have had in his thoughts When he said if thirty days were to go to a Month whether
the days were longer or shorter there must be thirty of them he should have considered that these thirty days were to be of such a length just as that that Number of them might make a Solar Month. For supposing them either longer or shorter than so they could not be such days as the Scripture speaks of because thirty of them still made such a Month. Whereas if they had been shorter as there must have been more so if they had been Longer fewer would have done it And thus the Answerer's design of throwing a Blunder upon the Excepter is quite defeated and while he made an awkward Blow at him he only struck and wounded himself Yet the Dust he here raises can neither hide the Objection which the Excepter made nor yet so blind the Reader 's eyes as that he should not see it remains unanswered For after all if the Contiguity of the Sphaere of the Exterior Earth with the Abyss ceased by reason the Waters of the Abyss were exhaled that Sphaere of the Earth must be carried about with less Celerity than before it was Especially if the Moon came late into the Earth's Neighbourhood which being an heavy Luggage in the outward part of the Earth's Vortex like a Clog hang'd upon the Rim of a Wheel would make it turn more slowly as the Excepter objected But because we have hinted that Scripture gives us to understand that there were twelve Months in the Antediluvian year and thirty days in each of those Months it will not be amiss to conclude this Chapter with showing how Scripture makes the things out In the eighth of Genesis then and the fifth verse it informs us that the waters decreased until the tenth Month. And after this that at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark v. 6th And that he stayed yet other seven days and sent forth the Dove v. 10th And that he stayed yet other seven days and sent forth the Dove again v. 12th Which fifty four days following the first day of the tenth Month on which the tops of the Mountains were seen v. 5th show that there must be twelve months in the year and indeed they make them up so many bating five days which we must suppose were still to run out before the first Month of the next year came in v. 13th And then it shows that there were thirty days in each Month. For first we find twenty seven days in one Month in this Chapter v. 14th And as we read in the Seventh Chapter the Waters prevailed upon the Earth one hundred and fifty days v. 24th Yet they began to come in the seventeenth day of the second month v. 11th and they began to decrease by the seventeenth day of the seventh month Chap. 8th v. 3d. Whence it is plain that the hundred and fifty days made just five months during which the Waters prevailed and so every month must consist of thirty days CHAP. IX IN the beginning of this Chapter relating to the Oval Figure of the first Earth he goes about to rectify a Principle of the Excepter's Answ p. 38. That terrestrial Bodies have a nitency inwards or downwards towards their Central point But let this be understood of Self-centred and Quiescent Earthly Bodies and the Assertion will need no Rectification And so the Excepter really meant it should be understood For he was not yet come to Consider the Mass upon which the Primitive Earth was founded as turning upon its own Center See Disc p. 190. but was going on towards the Consideration The Waters of that Mass Globular at first rising up above the Aequator by its gyration upon its own Axis became oval and so made the Earth of that Figure defluendo ad latera Disc p. 193 194. Answ p. 39. by flowing down at the sides of the Globe So the Theorist said at first To this word the Excepter spake so home that the Answerer we see was almost angry by the Reflections he makes We will therefore touch that tender place no more for fear of giving farther Provocation And we the rather forbear to press upon it because the Answerer we find is sensible it is sore by the Plaister he is fain to apply to it For now he has explain'd that word by another as he tells us namely Detrusione Ib. Let us therefore to the Thing Only in our passage to it it will not be amiss to observe his humour When he was fain to flinch and forc'd thus to shift from one word to another he falls upon the Excepter with a causeless censure of Pedantry and little triumphs He resolves that is to shoot Powder where he wants Bullets and at the same time that he gives Ground he will be as fierce as if he gain'd it Very pleasant to see to that he who blamed strong Passions as producing weak Arguments should thus by his Anger show his Impotence But we are to consider the Thing And here the Answerer interrogates Ib. May not waters ascend by force and detrusion when it is the easiest way they can take to free themselves from that force and persevere in their motion Without all Question they may provided that force and detrusion be of power sufficient to compel them to ascend against the Principle of their natural Gravity and such extrinsic accidental Obstacles as may chance to lye in their way and hinder them But what then He goes on Ib. This is the case we are speaking to They were impell'd to ascend or recede from the Center and it was easier for them to ascend laterally than to ascend directly upon an inclin'd Plain than upon a perpendicular one This assertion wants a great deal of Proof For that the Waters of the Chaos should through the Circumgyration of it rise or ascend any way is very improbable as being bound down by the circumambient Air which is carried about therewith Fill a sphaerical Glass with water and then turn it swiftly upon its own Center However the water in this Glass may have a strong and constant Conatus during that its Motion towards rising up yet certain it is the Glass that contains it would keep it from swelling out beyond those Bounds to which it self confines it In like manner the Body of the Air in which at that time was the whole matter of the Exterior Earth diffused surrounding the entire Element of the Water would have kept that from actual receding from the Center tho it were impregnated with a conatus that way 'T is confess'd if we take a Globe and turn it round swiftly Water or Sand if we lay either upon it will fly off it violently And one reason is because the ambient Air does not turn with this Globe but gliding close upon its wheeling Surface by a renitency against it sweeps off whatever lies loose upon it But were the Air about it carried round with it the lightest things that lye loosest on its Superficies would rest
there unmoved supposing it the proper Center of their Gravity And for the same reason finest Dust lies undisturb'd even upon the tops of highest Mountains tho they whisk about with such celerity as no humane Art and strength can imitate And if the Earth's Rotation as rapid as it is cannot cause small Dust to rise from Hills in way of recession from the Center much less could it produce that great effect upon the Mass of Water which as it was a vast and ponderous Body so it couched the closer to the Earth under it And the truth is as to a competent or sufficient Cause of the Wate 's supposed Rise or Ascent we are yet at a loss For the Cause assigned is Detrusion Detrusion made by the superambient Air. Answ p. 39. Methinks the Observator might have conceiv'd this Detrusion of waters towards the Poles by the resistance of the superambient Air. But now if this Cause fail'd and was not able to detrude the Waters at the Equinoctial where they were to be thrust down Or which is worse if it be sound a more effectual Cause to detrude them at the Poles where they were to rise up what then becomes of this Assertion we ore upon or of that Essential of the Theory it relates to the Oval form of the Primitive Earth Yet in Reality thus it was The Air that should have depress'd or thrust down the Waters at the Aequator of the liquid Globe was more dispos'd to do it at its Polar parts For the Sun moving always in the Equinoctial of that Globe the Air thereabouts must needs be very hot and so very thin and so very yielding and so less able to resist and detrude the Waters And on the contrary the Sun being always very distant from the Poles the Air in those parts must needs be more cold and so more thick and so more stiff and heavy and so more fit to make Resistance and Detrusion there than any where else Yet see the unluckiness of this contrivance the Waters were to rise higher there much higher at the Poles where the Air would most resist them and to be thrust down lowest at the Aequator by the Air where it could least depress them And if by the Air 's Resistance be meant any thing else but a meer Detrusion arising from its natural weight which as is said had most force to keep the Waters down where it was most needful they should have risen up such a Resistance cannot be conceived considering that the whole Mass of the Air was carried about in Circumgyration with the Globe of Water The Deserts of Biledulgerid Lybia c. lie betwixt the Aequator and our Northern Tropic and so within the compass of that Latitude where the Waters of the liquid Globe should have felt a Resistance of the Air. But what reason have we to believe they did so when the light or running Sands there are no more ruffled or in the least stirred by such Resistance than if they were a crust of Flint or Adamant and the like may by said of Mare del Zur It lies under the Line and so in the Equinoctial part of this Terraqueous Globe Which being there of the biggest Circumference it must turn thereabouts most swiftly and so cause the greater resistance of the Air were there any such thing and that would produce as great a disturbance in the Water But on the contrary so quiet and still and smooth and even is this vast Ocean that it is called the Pacific Sea And if these spatious Waters so exactly fitted for this Resistance both by their situation and immensely wide and far extended Surface feel nothing of it now why should or how could the waters of the Abyss do it at first No the Air resisted and detruded then but as it does now That is so far as its own Gravity caused a Compression Which as it was gentle so it was general comparing the entire Globe at once with a soft constringency Only there was reason as we have shewed why this compression should be lightest at the Equinoctial and why it should be heaviest at the Poles of the Globe and why it could not make such Resistance or Detrusion as is imputed to the Air. In short If it did make Resistance either it was gentle and would only have rimpled the Surface of the turning Waters as the Subsolanus does which blows constantly about the Equator and so would not have been of force sufficient to depress them into an oval Figure or else it was violent and so would have discompos'd the Abyss so much that the Earth could never have been founded upon it And truly what less than such a violence as would so have discompos'd it could alter the Figure of it But yet that there neither was nor could be such a violent resistance made by the Air as to detrude the Waters of the Chaotic Mass may I think be demonstrated from the Motion of the Moon Her Distance from hence in her Perigee or nearest approach to us is about 51 Semidiameters of the Earth in her Apogee or farthest remove from us about 65. To take a moderate or middling Distance therefore betwixt both let us suppose her always 56 of those Semidiameters off us And then let us suppose again that she performs her Periodical Circuit in 28 Days tho she does it in less Now she absolving her Circuit at 56 Semidiameters distance from the Earth in 28 Days in case She were but 28 Semidiameters distant which is but half the Space she must do it in 14 Days which is but half the time And so were she distant but 14 Semidiameters she must do it consequently in 7 Days According to which proportion the Air towards the Earth at the heighth of one Semidiameter above it must wheel about as fast as the Earth it self does to the space of half a Day Now every Semidiameter of the Earth containing says Mr. Rohault Tract Phys par 2. cap. 12. near 1431 Leagues or 4293 English Miles hence it will follow that the Air at the heighth of 2146 Miles turns about as fast as the Earth bating but 6 Hours And at the heighth of 1073 Miles as fast as that bating 3 Hours And so at the heighth of 357 Miles to avoid fractions to one Hour Which divide into 60 parts because in an Hour there are 60 Minutes and the Air at the heighth of 6 Miles must turn as fast as the Earth in round reckoning to the space of one Minute And if we drive down the Account so low at 3 quarters of a Miles heighth it must turn as fast to the eighth part of a Minute And so just on its Surface even with it And when the Air encompassing the Earth does thus conspire and circulate with it in its Gyration how could it possibly resist the Waters of the turning Abyss so as to change their figure from Sphaerical to Oval Nor will the Answerer's Simile help here unless it be
to aggravate the thing against himself He thinks this Detrusion of the Waters may be conceived Answ p. 39. as well as their flowing towards and upon the Shores by the pressure of the Air under the Moon And so indeed it may by those that can conceive the Air alone to be as heavy in it self as that and the Moon are both together But who in reason can conceive this And to say it was easier for waters to ascend laterally than directly to ascend upon an inclin'd Plain than a perpendicular one is vain in this case For what real Inclination could there be on a Globe towards the Poles more than at the Equator every point of whose Superficies is Equidistant from the Center And how could the Ascent of Waters at the Poles of a Globe be other than Direct and perpendicular when its Polar parts are always as much a Plain as its Aequinoctial ones can possibly be So that to suppose waters could ascend more easily at the Poles than at the Aequator of the Chaotic Abyss is in effect to suppose that they could ascend perpendicularly more easily than they could ascend perpendicularly For at the Poles they were to ascend as directly as at the Aequinoctial the waters being exactly globular at first till by this supposed ascent they grew oval Only there they must have met with these two Disadvantages which at the Equinoctial they were free from First as we have hinted already a more cold and thick and stark Air. Which we may be sure would crowd them down at the Poles because an Air more warm and fine and soft and open is presum'd to do it at the Aequator Secondly a weaker Spring or power to impel them For in the Middle of the turning Globe there was a Conatus or tendency of the Waters towards receding from the Center but at the Sides of it none at all So that at the sides they were to rise by that Conatus or Nitency in the Middle And if a thin and open Air could prevail against that force in its direct and primary efforts at the Aequinoctial how much more would a thicker closer Air have overpowred it where it could be exerted but obliquely remotely and as it were at second hand at the Poles of the Abyss From what has been said it will follow that without a better Defence of this Vital Assertion of the Theory its whole Hypothesis will fall to the Ground for want of an Oval Earth to support it And whereas the Answerer in the Close of his 14th Chapter makes this Reflection Some men they say though of no great valour yet will fight excellently well behind a Wall So the Excepter behind a Text of Scripture is very fierce and rugged He may please to take notice that tho it be much better fighting behind the Wall of a Text than against it the Excepter is here behind no such Wall but ingages him in the open field of Reason and Philosophy and doubts not but to keep his Post That is if he does not run to his First Expedient as his wont is and turn the great Artillery of Extraordinary Providence upon him before which there is no standing For that mows down the best Arguments and makes a Lane through them as Chain-shot does through a Company of the bravest Souldiers tho they fight never so well and have all imaginable Right on their side But then he must desert his Hypothesis again as he has often done and the World knows what he is that runs from his Colours One they say of no great Valour But truly if it be matter of reproach to a man to fight behind a Text of Scripture the Excepter desires that it may always stick close to him To adhere to the divine and holy Word and to oppose error by revealed truth he thinks is far enough from Cowardise Blessed be GOD that we have such a wall as His Scripture is behind which to fight against Truth 's Enemies Yet in this very Instance of forming an Oval Earth he flies to the help of Extraordinary Providence and thereby turns this necessary and indispensable Notion of the Air 's resistance or detrusion quite out of doors I mean by a certain Dilemma of his own brought in in the second Page of his Answer I apply it to him in his own words Either you take the Hypothesis of an ordinary Providence or of an extraordinary as to the time allowed for the Formation of the Earth If you proceed according to an ordinary Providence the formation of the Earth would require much more time than six days And so you must not take that Hypothesis because as you your self own in the fifth page of your Answer Scripture tell us that the Earth was form'd the third day But if according to an extraordinary you may suppose it made in six minutes But then the Resistance or Detrusion of the Air could not make the Waters oval that the Earth might be so For that being an ordinary natural Cause supposing it could be a cause would have required much more time than six days for the production of such an Effect And consequently this Resistance or Detrusion is made vain here and utterly useless by your self But if against the Answerer's concession of an extraordinary or miraculous efficiency here we should suppose an oval Earth to be made in a natural way and that in order thereunto a globular Abyss were to be form'd into an oval figure yet how could this be done according to the rule or method of the Theory For if the Waters of the Chaos by receding from the Center did rise up at the Equinoctial part of it and above fall off towards the Poles then underneath there must be a draught of Waters back again from the Poles toward the Equinoctial which continuing to rise there might push or drive on the stream towards the Poles that otherwise would not hold on its motion forasmuch as it flowed on a true Globe the surface of which is equivalent to a Plain where Waters never flow but by force or impulse And yet if such counter-motions as these be allowed to those Waters they might thus flow and reflow for ever without producing the design'd effect For the draught of Waters below towards the Equinoctial would draw in the liquid Mass at the Poles and so hinder its growing into an oblong or oval figure as much as the Drift of them above towards the Poles could swell them out there and so help towards the same The first Argument against the Oval Figure of the Earth was its inconvenient Position which would have followed thereupon For then it must have lain cross the vehicular Stream by which it was carried round the Sun and have been directed not unlike to Ships sailing side-ways and so it could not have kept that Position long but must have chang'd its Site in compliance with the duct or tendency of that Current wherein it swam In answer to this it is
we do not nor need not grant yet these must have given as fatal a blow to the Theory as the fall of the Earth would have done to this City For their very out-lasting the fury of the Deluge would prove that Joppa consisted not of a Number of Cottages made of branches of trees Answ p. 50. of Osiers and Bull-rushes or of Mud-Walls and Straw Roofs which then must all have been quite washt away but of Edifices made of such Materials as could never be prepared formed and set up without Iron tools And so we come to The Last Reason against the supposed dissolution of the Earth It would have made GOD's Covenant with Noah See Disc p. 296 297 298. a very vain and trifling thing Because then the Earth was not capable of or liable to such another Deluge It is here answered So much is true p. 65. that the Deluge in the course of Nature will not return again in the same way If it returns not in the same way that is in the course of nature it cannot be such another Deluge as Noah's was for that came in by the Course of Nature Read the beginning of the 6th Chapter of this Reply Answ p. 65. He proceeds But unless GOD prevents it it both may and will return in another way That is if the World continues long enough the Mountains will wear and sink and the Waters in proportion rise and overflow the whole Earth How possible soever such a Deluge may be in long process of time yet Christians who believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and that principal Article of it the World's Conflagration can never think that it shall come to pass For if the World in the end were to be overflow'd with Water how could it according to St. Peter be reserved unto fire 2 Pet. 3. ◠And GOD having thus declar'd that he will prevent it His Covenant with Noah could have no relation to such a natural Overflow This piece of answer therefore is so very thin that a weak eye may easily see through it and discern that there is shifting at the bottom of it He adds therefore Answ p. 65. GOD might when He pleased by an extraordinary power and for the sins of men bring another Deluge upon the World And that is the thing which Noah seems to have feared and which GOD by his Covenant secur'd him against Noah's Flood was brought upon the World for the sins of men And if another Flood may be brought in upon that account by GOD's extraordinary power then Noah's Flood might come in by that power too even by its creating waters to make it Which in case it had been but yielded at first it might have sav'd the pains of setting up this Hypothesis And not only so but likewise have superseded the collateral trouble of too weak and ineffectual endeavours to support it And when all is said the sole reason why such another flood as Noah's was shall never come in again is not any change in Nature rendring the thing difficult or impossible but the unchangeable covenant of GOD as appears Isai 54.9 Where GOD to illustrate the stability of his kindness to the Jewish Church and to show that its calamity shall never be reiterated compares it to the sure and perpetual exclusion of the waters of Noah to the return of which his immutable Oath is the eternal bar For this is as the waters of Noah unto me for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee Thus we have done with the Answer to our Exceptions In which I am not conscious to my self that I have omitted any one thing which deserves notice and a Reply And here I might speak freely of this Answer But because its defects are plain and obvious enough to the intelligent I only say this much That I expected a better from the Author of the Theory or none at all CHAP. XV. HEre the Scaene changes and our Answerer now becomes an Objector and manages this part as he did the other And as an instance of as much he trips in the first step that he makes and stumbles into a Mistake For he affirms Answ p. 66. that the first Proposition laid down for the establishing of our Hypothesis is this That the Flood was but fifteen Cubits high above the ordinary level of the Earth But as any one that pleases may see the Proposition laid down as the foundation of our Hypothesis is verbatim this Disc p. 30◠That the highest parts of the Earth that is of the common surface of it were under Water but fifteen Cubits in depth And between the common surface or ordinary level of the Earth and the highest parts of that surface or level there is great difference For according to the first the Waters were not 30 foot high as he noted Ib. l. 12. but according to the latter they might in most places be thirty forty or fifty Cubits high or higher as we observed Disc p. 300. l. 31. Ib. l. 27. And whereas it is said of the Waters of the Flood that they were but fifteen Cubits high in all above the surface of the Earth it is manifest that the highest parts of its surface were there intended by what follows in explanation of that Clause even to the end of the Paragraph Touching the Proposition he cries out This is an unmerciful Paradox Answ p. 66. But who could have lookt for such an Exclamation from him whose own Paradoxes are so many and unmerciful Here therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Censure returns double upon himself And while he finds fault with the sliver in my Teeth I may justly give him the Talmudic answer usually directed to the more guilty Reprehender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take the Beam out of thine eyes Then he enquires Ib. p. 66 67. under what notion must this Proposition be receiv'd as a Postulatum or as a Conclusion If it be a Postulatum it must be clear from its own light or acknowledg'd by general consent It cannot pretend to be clear from its own light because it is matter of fact which is not known but by Testimony Neither is it generally acknowledg'd for the general opinion is that the Waters covered the tops of the Mountains and were fifteen Cubits higher We might bring this home to the vital Assertions of the Theory but let us try but one of them Namely that the Primitive Earth was without a Sea Under what notion must this Proposition be receiv'd As a Postulatum or as a Conclusion If it be a Postulatum it must be clear from its own light or acknowledg'd by general consent It cannot pretend to be clear from its own light because it is matter of fact which is not known but by testimony Neither is it generally acknowledg'd For the general opinion is
Theory's had one single text to support it And yet how easie were it to cite seveval texts of Scripture that fall in most naturally with our sense I will instance but in two He layeth up the Deeps in treasuries Psal 33.7 And what could these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Treasuries be so properly as huge Caverns in Rocks and Mountains where GOD by the hand of Nature did of old and still does lay up Deep Waters And Pro. 3.20 GOD says by his knowledge the Depths are broken up or cleaved And to what can this Text be applied more fitly and of what can it be understood more fairly or expounded more emphatically than these Caverns Which as they were more generally broke up at the time of the Flood according as GOD in his Wisdom thought fit so at certain times and in certain places many have been cleaved or opened since Sometimes miraculously as in Rephidim and Cadesh and sometimes otherwise by ordinary Providence New Springs breaking forth and running continually out of the opened Caverns Whence as some Water issued or flowed out other again was still generated within by the Resolution of Vapours drawn up from the Great Deep below to which the Roots of many high Rocks and Mountains may descend Yea if they did not go down below the bottom of the Deep how could we come by the Metals that we have Next he intimates that the Text we alledge Ib. has been generally understood otherwise And so have many Texts which he alledges in favour of his Hypothesis And yet he thought that they might be interpreted to his sense and were very applicable to his purpose Ib. Then he says that the Excepter by all means will have these holes in the Rocks to be the same with the Mosaical Abyss or Great Deep that was broken up at the Deluge This is a meaning quite beyond our intention For we mean only this That our Caverns were but the fountains of the great Deep broken up at the Flood not the Great Deep it self And this is evident from several Expressions three of which occur in the same page where our Notion is delivered 303. li. 2. What those Fountains of the Great Deep were which at the time of the Flood were cleaved c. Li. 8. And again The breaking up of the Fountains of Tehom Rabbah or the great Deep which the Theory insists so much upon was no more than the breaking up of such Caverns And presently after the breaking open of the Fountains of the great Deep Li. 20. Gen. 7.11 and the cleaving of those Rocks in the Wilderness Psal 78.15 were in effect but the same thing p. 310. li. 12. And afterwards Still the great deep Caverns of the Mountains may very well pass for the Fountains of Moses 's Tehom Rabbah So that whereas it is said p. 312. Li. 1. supposing that the Caverns in the mountains were this great Deep c. And where speaking of the Psalmist's great Deeps and Moses's great Deep it is said p. 305. li. 30. that the same thing might be meant by both it is plain that by those Caverns and the Psalmist's Great Deeps must be meant that they were the same with the Fountains of Moses's Tehom Rabbah or Great Deep and not that Great Deep it self And whereas it is said in our Discourse p. 153. that the great Deep or the fountains then broken up had no relation to the Sea it is to be understood that they had no such relation to it as that the breaking them up should occasion the proud waves of the Sea to pass their bounds in making the Deluge the thing there spoken of And lastly tho Moses's word be Deep and the Psalmist's word be Deeps yet as the different Numbers they use need not set them at variance so according to our meaning p. 306. they are very reconcileable For such Deeps as the Psalmist mentions were but the fountains of Moses's Deep and so in effect as was said even now but the same thing As much the same as fountains rising from a Spring-head and that Spring-head can be the same And we may observe in concent with this that Moses does not say that the Great Deep was broken up but that the Fountains of the great Deep were so And what true Fountains of the Great Deep were our Caverns of Water For the waters that filled them might all be drawn up by the influence of the Sun out of Moses's Great Deep and then when Providence cleaved these Caverns and set them a flowing how properly and really might it be said that the Fountains of the Great Deep were broken up seeing that might be the Source from whence originally the waters of these Fountains were extracted The Answerer adds Answ p. 75. that according to the Excepter the Great Deep was not one thing or one continued Cavity as Moses represents it but ten thousand holes separate and distant from one another Tho our Great Deeps were many and separate and distant from one another yet they do not hinder Moses's Great Deep from being one continued Cavity for ours were but the fountains of his Tho enough was said besides to take off the edge of this Objection Disc p. 305 306. where we shewed that Scripture does use the singular and plural Numbers promiscuously sometimes putting one for the other Were there not above ten thousand Quails about the Hebrews Camp when they fell round about it as it were two Cubits high Num. 11.31 Yet the Scripture says only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Quail came up Exod. 16.13 As if as many as they were they had been but one The Answerer proceeds Neither must the Great Deep according to him signify a low place but an high place For he confesses these Caverns were higher than the common level of the Earth Answ p. 75. Moses's Great Deep may lie as low as you please But our Great Deeps were but as Fountains of his and so might be as high as we plac'd them And yet some of them might be full out as deep as the Sea it self is in most places if we consider the wonderful heighth of some Mountains And so they might be strangely vast also considering how big some Mountains are And this our notion of the Fountains of the Great Deep falls in most fairly with the Scripture Doctrine of the Original of Fountains For that makes them to come from the Sea or Great Abyss and we suppose ours to be derived from thence Let these things be duly weighed and I hope it will appear that the Answerer had no reason at all to charge us with breaking thorough so many plain Texts of Scripture Ib. p. 76. Will he who finds this great fault be found free from the like himself But here I appeal to any indifferent Judge if our Notion of the fountains of the great Deep be not as consonant to Scripture as any other And thus we come
the Aereal Heavens perisht do think that they perisht any otherwise than by the Water 's rising up into the lowest Regions of the Air. And that place of Bede which the Review cites seems to speak the common sense as well as his own which gives us to understand that the Heavens perished p. 25. cunctis aeris hujus turbulenti spatiis aquarum accrescentium altitudine consumptis All the spaces of this turbulent Air being taken up by the heighth of the swelling waters According to which the Heavens perished just as the Air does in a Vessel when it fills with Water But let out the Water and the Air immediately returns into it So the lowest Heavens that perished at the Flood by standing in the Water when that was dried up presently recovered their first Aereal Constitution again The Last reason is answered in the 4th of the foregoing Exceptions And from what has been here said Answers may with ease be made to those Considerations which the Review alledges in proof of a Diversity or Opposition made by S. Peter betwixt the Ancient Heavens and Earth and the Present But farther yet the Review observes that S. Paul also implys that triple Creation which S. Peter expresses p. 10 11. For Rom. 8.20 21 he tells us of a Creation that will be redeemed from vanity which are the new Heavens and new Earth to come A Creation in subjection to vanity which is the present State of uhe World And a Creation that was subjected to vanity in hopes of being restored which was the first Paradisiacal Creation But by Creation or Creature here to understand the Heavens and Earth must be improper For first it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Creation or every Creature that is here spoken of v. 22d And where does that signify the material Heavens and Earth in Scripture Secondly the Creature mention'd is capable of waiting and of earnest expectation and of hope and of pain and of groaning as the verse cited and the context show Yea it seems to be capable of groaning as we our selves do v. 23. Which is above the power of Matter tho never so subtil or celestial Thirdly the Creature here is to be delivered from bondage into glorious liberty v. 21. And this again is a Character which falls not in with the Heavens and Earth He says indeed that the Creature that will be Redeemed from Vanity is the new Heavens and new Earth to come But how will they supposing them come into the Paradisiacal State be delivered from vanity For even then they can be in no better condition than the first Paradisiacal Heavens and Earth were as coming but into a state of Renovation or Restitution And they were so far from being freed from Vanity that they were subject to corruption and perished at the Deluge as the Theorist holds And truly so must the last Paradisiacal ones too unless it be prevented The new Earth if it stands long enough must be dissolved and lose its Form and the new Heavens must be changed at another Deluge and lose their Constitution Or if the day of Judgment should happen first and hinder this yet where would be their Redemption or Deliverance here phantsied For still they would be vain and corruptible in their Nature as Enoch and Elias were both Mortal tho neither died To which add that the Theory l. 4. p. 219 220. plants Gog and Magog in the New Earth and allows them to grow numerous there as the sand by the Sea And so it can no more be redeem'd or deliver'd from Moral Vanity and Corruption upon it than from Natural Vanity and Corruptibility in it Lastly This Creature of the Apostles is to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Children of God v. 21. now the liberty of GOD's Children is Moral Spiritual and Divine which is not compleated but in the future exalted state of bliss Where being heirs of GOD and joint heirs with CHRIST we shall be glorified with him v. 17th But such a liberty as this is no way compatible to things meerly Physical and so the Heavens and Earth tho never so new and paradisiacal must not pretend to it cannot partake of it Thus we see that the Theorists Interpretation of this Place of Scripture is not right and therefore of necessity we must look out for some other Creature as here intended Nor need we search much to find one Preach the Gospel to every Creature said the H. JESUS to his Apostles S. Mar. 16.15 Here the word is the same with S. Paul's to the Romans But Heavens and Earth cannot possibly be meant by it because to them there must be no Preaching But by every Creature the Heathen World may fitly be understood And so this Precept or Commission given to the Apostles is parallel to that in the last chapter of S. Matthew go and teach all Nations And then by the Vanity to which the Creature was Subject and the Bondage of Corruption from which they were to be delivered we must understand See Dr. Hammonds Annotations on the place Idolatry to which the Gentiles were miserably inslaved And that indeed in Scripture is emphatically exprest by Vanity and Corruption So the Apostles Act. 15th having preached to Idolaters declare the end of their Doctrine was to turn them from their VANITIES And Moses in Deuteronomy does usually point at Idolatry by mens CORRUPTING themselves And if we frame the Exposition of S. Paul's words to this sense it will run very smoothly through the whole Paragraph without any considerable check or Difficulty Review p. 11. But after S. Paul he brings in S. John also to countenance his Phantsie of this triple State of Heavens and Earth For he speaks of the new Heavens and new Earth with that distinguishing Character that the Earth was without a Sea And as this distinguisheth it from the present Earth so being a Restitution or Restauration it must be the same with some former Earth c. To this we Answer The one and twentieth Chapter of the Apocalyps where we meet with S. Johns new Heavens and Earth consists of two very glorious Scenes The New Heavens and Earth make the first and the holy City or the New Jerusalem the latter But this City being Allegorical we have no reason to think that the new Heavens down from which and the new Earth down to which it came should be otherwise Also this Allegation does no more prove The Triple State of Heavens and Earth or that the primitive Earth was without a Sea than it proves there shall be a City built of pure Gold whose twelve Gates shall be twelve Pearls in a Literal sense according to the tenour of that chapter And now let us offer but Two short Exceptions which will not fail to subvert the chief Scripture-basis of the whole Theory of the Earth as the Review calls it p. 13th by showing that S. Peter's words as well as S. Paul's and S. John's are