Discourse p. 49. how the Theory acknowledged that to make the primitive Earth out of Particles descending from above p. 51. must be a good whiles work and that it was to become dry by degrees after it had done growing and that the Body or new Concretion of it was increased DAILY being fed and supplied both from above and below And can an Habitable Earth which is a good while in making and the body of which must be DAILY increased be made in six Minutes even by Extraordinary Providence it self What made the Answerer start out of the way of ordinary Providence which he went in as to the Earth's Formation into this extraordinary one to stumble into such a Contradiction of himself But so it is A Contradiction to himself when men are pinched and put to pain they must do and say something tho it be little to the purpose yea much against it And this grave distinction being bestowed upon the first Exception without more ado it is fairly dropt And as for the Arguments contained in the residue of the Chapter against undue protraction of the time of the Earth's Formation which protraction is made necessary by the Theorist's Hypothesis Answ p. 4. even against the Doctrine or History of Moses They are left to the Author and his Readers the Theory being not concerned in them And so they are answered by his Last Expedient But before I go farther I must tell our Answerer that in allowing this extraordinary Providence he condemns his Hypothesis of extraordinary Impertinence For what Need or what Vse can there be of his New Hypothesis as to solving the Phaenomenaes of the Flood when by this Concession the old one will be inabled to the Solution of them all for which his was invented Thus for example was that World to be drowned and the Flood to surmount the highest Hills fifteen Cubits Why extraordinary Providence in six Minutes could create water enough to do it Was that work done by such a prodigious Flood and the Mass of Water to be dried up again Extraordinary Providence could as soon annihilate it Was the frame of the World to be inlarged upon the coming of so vast a quantity of new matter into it And to be contracted again upon its going out Extraordinary Providence could sufficiently provide both against the one and the other inconvenience Were men to live a thousand years before the Flood The same Providence could effect this without a continual Equinox or an Earth universally paradisiacal And thus the Theory instead of making any Figure here is by its own Author made to dwindle into a Cypher and meer superfluity We hope that henceforward the old method of explaining Noah's Flood shall be allowed to be rational and intelligible for that proceeded upon extraordinary Providence and our Answerer is fain to make use of that kind of Providence in reference to his own Hypothesis at last Yea the truth is he is now glad we see to take up with it at first and even to form his Earth by it And yet he tells us in the sixth Chapter of the first Book of his Latin Theory Edit 2. that this Earth was formed solo ductu by the sole conduct of the most known Laws of Gravity and Levity And so this Natural History the Theory is in good part a Natural History of what was done by Divine Power or an History of an effect wrought by Extraordinary Providence which was done by the sole conduct of Natures Laws and Principles And therefore how true this piece of Natural History is and also how great let the World judge but if it be not extremely remarkable I am much mistaken Another Contradiction And so I am if here be not contradiction again But tho our Answerer as he pretends in this Chapter be such a friend to extraordinary Providence yet it is evident that the Theorist otherwhiles was not For tho now his Earth as he grants might be made in six minutes yet heretofore it was to be increased daily and to be dried by degrees before it could be habitable that is it was to be formed in way of ordinary Providence And in the second Chap. of the first Book of his English Theory he tells the World plainly that if we come to reflect seriously upon it we shall find it extreamly difficult if not impossible p. 9. to give an account of the Waters that compos'd the Deluge whence they came and whether they went And adds Ib. to find Water sufficient for this Effect as it is generally explained and understood I think is impossible But had he been hearty for Extraordinary Providence here would have appeared no difficulty I am sure much less extreme difficulty and least of all impossibility For such a Providence could have created Waters to compose the Deluge and then have annihilated them again and as the quantity of them would thus have been sufficient so the account whence they came and whither they went would have been as easie That this was one way in which some went as to explaining the Deluge according to the general or common Notion of it the Theorist observed in his third Chapter They say in short says he Eng. The. p. 18. That God ALMIGHTY created waters on purpose to make the Deluge and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease But how did he approve of this way That will appear from what follows Where he presently complains Ib. that this is to show us the naked arm of Omnipotency A sight which he could not well brook in this case And why Why Ib. because this is to cut the knot when we cannot loose it Yet see the change he is now fain to show the naked Arm of Omnipotency himself and to make use of the Knife of Extraordinary Providence tho with it he cuts his own Fingers as well as several knots of his Hypothesis as we shall see afterward And thus we have gained one extraordinary Point An Earth that before was to increase DAILY in the Body or Concretion of it and so might be six Days or six Weeks or as many Months or Years in forming might now by Extraordinary Providence be made in six Minutes That is our Author is brought to Cross his Hypothesis in this Matter For now he supposes that his Earth might be formed in six Minutes by extraordinary Providence whereas the Theory as is plain from the cited Expressions carries on its formation in way of ordinary Providence according to which the Formation of it would require much more time than six days as he confesses Answ p. 2. CHAP. III. THat the Moon was in the Heavens and in our neighbourhood P. 5. when the Earth was form'd he proves from the six days Creation says the Answerer of the Excepter here But his Argument he tells him will be of no force unless he can prove that the Fourth days Creation was before the Third No Who
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
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
but little above half an hour And then to counter-ballance or weigh down this single Difference in length of Nights the pretended Cause of prevailing or excessive degrees of Cold in this present state of Nature beyond what could be in the praediluvian World we hinted several other Causes of vehement Cold in that World Disc Chap. 5 which are not in this tho the Answerer takes no notice of them As First upon supposition that That Earth was Oval the Wet Regions in it must have been several hundreds of Miles farther removed from the Sun than our Climate is and so the Cold there must have been proportionably stronger Secondly in the primitive Earth there was no Clouds which contribute much towards warming the Air. That is as they reverberate or beat back the Beams of the Sun reflected from the Earth As they straiten and compress Vapours in their Motion and agitation And as at some times and in some measure they transmit the Coelestial Rays not altogether unlike to Burning-glasses Thirdly in the first Earth there was no open Seas which fill the Air with Mists and Foggs and great store of Vapours that do mightily thicken it and consequently mitigate the sharpness of it Fourthly There was no Hills nor Valleys Ruggednesses nor Inequalities upon the Surface of that Earth which cause Heat again by confus'd and irregular Reflections of the Sun-beams Now put but these Four Causes of Cold extant in the first World into the Scales against the Length of Nights in the Second which the Answerer insists upon and they will not fail to weigh it down sufficiently Especially if we add that in our Nights shorter by near Four hours than those before the Flood we have sometimes very brisk kind of Frosts In the Beginning that is to say or in the Middle of May when the Sun is far advanc'd on our side of the Equator in a World that has Clouds and Seas and Hills Answ p. 15. As to the other part of the Exception These Rivers could not have been made in due time He answers thus That 's wholly according to the Process you take if you take a meer natural Process the Rivers could not flow throughout the Earth all on a sudden but you may accelerate that process as much as you please by a Divine Hand And so this is answered by the first Expedient Extraordinary Providence which is here at a Pinch brought in again to serve this Extraordinary Hypothesis And thus indeed there might be Rivers for Fishes and a River in Paradise and the one as soon and the other as great as needed to be even as big as Euphrates it self Here therefore this Controversie must end for who can stand out against such an Answer Only we must say it is a very Philosophical one and 't is pitty he made not shorter Work in the Case For he might have told us that Men and Animals and all kind of Plants by the power of a Divine Hand lived without water before the Flood and then he had sav'd himself the whole trouble as well of raising as of propagating his Rivers And truly so difficult a Work is the latter of these Another Contradiction that it will cost him no less than a Contradiction to do it For he tells us in his English Theory p. 228. that the derivations of the waters at first would be very irregular and diffuse till the Channels were a little worn and hollowed And p. 229. that the Current would be easie and gentle all along and if it chanc'd in some places to rest or be stopt it would spread it self into a pleasant Lake till by fresh supplies it had raised its waters so high as to overflow and break loose again Now when at first there were no Rivers but diffused waters and afterwards they were to flow in Channels worn and hollowed by themselves When their Currents were to be easie and gentle all along and to rest and stop and spread at places till they waxed strong enough to run forward Were these waters accelerated by a divine hand No more than what is natural is at the same time miraculous No more than what is slow is at the same time swift Or than flat Contradictions can fall in with truth CHAP. VI. PART of the Theorist's Design in explaining the Deluge his way was to silence the Cavils of Atheists Eng. Theor. p. 17. That is by superseding the Miracle of Creating Waters in that Case and then of Annihilating the same which seemed to him a Method irrational and unintelligible and by making it the effect of natural Causes and so in his opinion more agreeable to reason and more easie to be understood Ib. p. 20. And accordingly he declares that the Design of his Treatise is to show a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible and accountable without creating of new waters And in another place explaining the Deluge in a natural way Chap. 8. or by natural Causes he makes these Causes to be Vapours within the Earth and Rains without it and Cracks and Chasms made by the Sun in the Arch of it All which natural Causes together brought on the Disruption of that Earth and this Disruption occasion'd the Innundation But if his Hypothesis which takes off one Miracle brings on another or as the event of things might prove makes it necessary to suppose another Miracle interwoven with the Contexture of it it will then contribute just nothing towards silencing the Atheist who cannot possibly be reconciled to Miracle as professing principles most repugnant to it Now the great Flood being made by the Theory an Effect of Natural Causes it must needs have come on in a Course of Nature Yea tho it was to come as a Judgment upon obstinate Sinners yet it must have hapned inevitably tho Mankind had been Innocent or truly Penitent unless the power of a miraculous hand had forcibly stopt the Course of Nature and held her from running on into this otherwise certain and inavoidable issue And when it is as necessary to admit Miracle into this new Hypothesis as it was to allow it in the Old how is the Atheist silenced by it Yea when he sees this Hypothesis making Ruine the Lot either of a righteous or repenting World this must open his mouth instead of silencing his tongue and make him more fierce and clamorous than ever This is the Substance of the Excepter's Sixth Chapter which runs upon what the Cavilling Athiest would be apt to alledge against the Theory of the Flood It is answered thus Answ p. 19. What the Excepter suggests concerning Athiests and their presum'd Cavils at such an explication of the Deluge is a thing only said at random and without grounds And why so Surely it must be because of something the Answerer had said before Ib. p. 18. p. 19. Namely that GOD's Praescience is infallible and God is the Author and Governour of the Natural World as well as
any thing even what he openly condemns to support as he thinks his tottering Hypothesis which when he has done all that he can will fall at last Ibid. Then he passes to the following verses in that 38th Chapter Who shut up the Sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of a womb c. Here the Excepter gave reasons why these words must refer to what was done in the Beginning of the World Disc p. 150. p. 150. 151. As also reasons why by the Womb here mentioned could not be meant the inclosure of the Abyss as the Theory would have it And none of them being answered but by the Expedient of passing them by they both stand good Now if the HOLY GHOST speaks here of the Sea when it first brake forth into being which all but the Theorist allow he does what Womb could it issue out of but the Womb of Nothing But instead of removing our Objections the Answerer brings in two of his own which the Replicant will not answer as he does the Excepter's The first is this If you understand the Womb of Non-entity Answ p. 25. the Sea broke out of that womb the first day and had no bars or doors set to it but flow'd over all the Earth without check or controul Therefore that could not be the time or state here spoken of And to refer that restraint or those bars and doors to another time which are spoken of here in the same verse would be very inexcusable in the Excepter seeing he will not allow the Theorist to suppose those things that are spoken of in different Verses to be understood of different times Now pray what is the difference betwixt the time of the Sea 's breaking forth of the womb and the time of its being restrain'd with doors that the Excepter should be so very inexcusable for allowing that difference It was but the space of one poor day And truly if he had not allowed of this difference when GOD Himself signifies that he made the breaking forth of the waters into being part of his first day's work and the gathering them together into one place the decreed place where they were shut up with bars and doors his Third days work he must have been very inexcusable indeed O but therefore the Excepter is very inexcusable because he will not allow the Theorist to suppose those things that are spoken of in different verses to be understood of different times Be it so But were the different times of the Theorist then no more distant than the different times of the Excepter The space between the Excepter's times was one single day that between the Theorist's times was more than sixteen hundred years And yet let him bring but as good authority for the Different times which he contends for as the Excepter does for his different times which GOD has clearly distinguisht by different works his creating Waters on one of the times and his collecting and confining them on the other and his different times will by all be allowed But because he can bring no such authority nor any at all besides his own not the Excepter but he himself must be the very inexcusable person in this Matter His second Objection runs thus Ib. This Metaphysical notion of the womb of nothing is altogether impertinent at least in this case for the Text is plainly speaking of things local and corporeal and this prison of the Sea must be understood as such Must it so What necessity is there for it None at all but to support the Theorist's sinking Hypothesis And for him to say it must be so understood in favour of that is to beg the Question And however that may be less metaphysical it will be more impertinent than our Notion is For that we can presently make very pertinent by a way which himself just now cut out Foundations and Corner-stones are as local and corporeal things as the rest which the Text speaks of Yet these he told us in the immediately fore-going Page P. 24. l. 15. 16. may be understood in way of Allusion And let but this Womb be understood the same way as it ever was and then the Notion will be pertinent enough But who is impertinent for suggesting it was not so The last place is Prov. 8.27 28. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a compass upon the face of the deep c. That by the word Compass here could not be meant the first habitable Earth as a Sphaere Orb or Arch in the beginning set round the Abyss according to the Theory the Excepter shewed very plainly Disc p. 153 154 155. But what he alledged of that nature is answered only by the Second Expedient which is made great use of that is it is passed by with silence Yet that the Answerer might seem to say something he sets up a shadow or phantsy of his own Answ p. 25. and then encounters it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render compass he the Excepter says signifies no more than the rotundity or spherical figure of the Abyss Let the Answerer show where the Excepter says thus In this he charges him falsly A plain Untruth Disc p. 154. He only said that by the word compass might be meant either Earthly bounds about the open Waters or the Firmament of Heaven as a Sphaere Orb or Arch set upon the face of the Deep And are either of these the Rotundity or Sphaerical figure of the Abyss Yet if they are not as they cannot be has not the Answerer done manifest wrong to the Excepter by suggesting a vain Phantsy or Notion of his own and fathering it upon him as his This to speak freely is fencing with an unlawful Weapon which never commends either the Skill or Ingenuity of them that use it He might therefore as well have wav'd the false charge here by which he would turn the point of non-sense upon the Excepter For what can be more highly nonsensical than to say that the banks about the sides or the Air about the Surface of the Sea are but the shape or meer figure of it This Gentleman in this very Chapter complains of unfairness And is it possible He that does this wrong in the very next paragraph cries out of injury Answ p. 26. Of an injustice which the Excepter hath done the Theory by a false accusation For he says the Theory makes the Construction of the first Earth to have been meerly Mechanical And did it not make it so Proferte tabulas How read we in the beginning of the Sixth Chapter of the Latin Theory Edit 2. Secutus sum leges notissimas gravitatis levitatis earum solo ductu vidimus massam illam primigeniam pervenisse tandem in formam stabilem regionis terrae I have followed the most known laws of gravity and levity and by the sole leading of them we have
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
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