what I have or shall suggest Secondly he tells us that though the Sun and other Planets were not part of the Creation which Moses relates yet they are inserted into his Narrative of the Six days Work because he had a mind to gratify the dull ignorant people the rude and illiterate Iews he spoke of before Those Heavenly Bodies are fetch'd in here to comply with the Vulgar Notion that they are part of the Clouds or belong to the region of the Air. p. 21 22 It is true it is not unusual in the Holy Scriptures to condescend in some expressions to the Capacity of the Vulgar and there is an Instance of it in this very Chapter v. 16 but this is a quite different thing from giving a Set Narration of a Matter when there is really no such thing as is related Which is the case here for this Writer holds that Moses to condescend to the apprehensions of the people tells them expressly that the Sun Moon and Stars were created on the 4th day and placed in the upper Firmament though there was nothing of that nature nothing created nothing then made nothing in that place Set. If it were only Impertinency that was charg'd upon Moses by the Theorist viz. that he brings into his Diary things that are nothing to the purpose that the hooks in the Solar System into the History that appertains only to the Sublunary World we might bear with it though it is an ill Imputation and unworthy of the Inspired Writer but when he charges him with Deceit and Falsity it is not to be suffer'd Moses as he grants pretends to speak in this Chapter of Matter of Fact to relate the distinct time and proper place when and where things were done and yet this Relation is not True and Real but a misrepresentation and a false account of things for whereas Moses mentions a certain Time and particular Day when the Lights of heaven were created this Author peremptorily denies that they were created at that Time and on that Day and whereas Moses tells us that the Luminaries were set in the firmament of heaven he saith the true place of these bodies is not assign'd them p. 18. However Moses records it in his Journal right or wrong to please and at the same time to deceive the dull People He and his Abettors would excuse themselves by saying it is only concealing the Truth but that is apparently false for here is Actual Deception and Falsifying because here is a Positive and Downright relating of what was not True and yet delivering it as True As to what this Worthy Author saith that here is a compliance with the Common Notions viz. that the Sun and Stars are part of the Clouds or belong to the Region of the Air he makes the Vulgar more Simple and Ignorant then they are to shew himself more wise than others in his interpretation of the place And especially he forgets here though he mentioned it before that the Jewish Rabble were come lately from Egypt and there we know there were seldom any Clouds there being constantly a Clear and Serene Sky so that it was Impossible they should be bred up with this notion viz. that the Sun was seated in the Firmament of the Air where the Clouds are This was not thought of by our Author otherwise he would not have averred that Moses here accommodates himself to the Popular Humour and apprehension and that he spoke to those of the Iewish Nation who who were unlearned and Ignorant Thirdly he offers this as an other ground of his strange Interpretation that though Moses makes mention of the Sun Moon and Stars in his Diary of the Creation yet these great Luminaries of the world were made before and only now placed or seem to be placed in our Firmament p. 14 15. It is not necessary saith he to believe that these bodies were then first created when Moses makes mention of them p. 14. Which is against the whole tenour scope and coherence of the Chapter and contrary to the Stile and Expressions in every part of it which all run in the Preter-perfect Tense not in the more then perfect Tense as he would have it understood Who can think that the Narrative concerning the fourth days work is to be Understood in a different way from all the Rest All things belonging to the other days works are set down exactly and according to the matter of Fact but here he fancies it is otherwise the stile varies and there was no such thing as this days work so that there was a Double Sabbath according to him God rested from the works of Creation on the fourth and on the seventh day But however to fill up the space Moses faith something and makes us believe that there was something done And this he doth to suit himself to the Capacities of the Illiterate and Vulgar Whence it might be inferred that in the Rest of the Chapter he turns himself to the Learned and Wise but then the Author differs from himself for he had informed us before that among the Iews at that time there were no Philosophers but that they were all Idiots and Blockheads These are the strange and wild notions of our Theorist and yet they are swallowed down though I hope but by few besides himself rather then the Literal and Plain History of Moses shall take place rather than he will adhere to the Genuine sense of the Text. And he himself acknowledges that all the other parts of the Chapter excepting what relates to the Fourth days work are to be taken otherwise that is they are meant of what was really done on those Particular Days which are specified and there is no reason imaginable to make any Exception as to the Fourth day He would come off by suggestions that the Sun and Moon and Stars are then said to be made or created when they became Conspicuous and their bodies distinctly Visible p. 23. so that according to this New Expositor they were not made till there was a clear Day or Night to shew them The Author of this Conceit is two Learn'd to persist in it and too ingenuous not to blush at it Fourthly an other profound Reason why the Heavenly Bodies are thus placed by Moses was to prevent Idolizing of them It was to shew us the unreasonableness of all sorts of Idolatry or of the worship of any visible beings though never so useful and glorious p. 81. Nay he tells us that the securing of the Iews from the adoration of the host of heaven could not otherwise have been provided for p. 28. Till the force of this Reason can be apprehended we may truely say there was poor Provision made against Idolatry yea none at all Unless he means all the stars Fixed as well as others which his Hypothesis will not allow of it could not be designed to obviate or hinder Idolatry this every one cannot but apprehend Or can we imagine that the most Holy
you for seeing you are wont to indulge me a great Freedom when I have the felicity to Communicate with you I have made use of that Liberty now and thereby am become Tedious For which I beg your pardon and request nothing more passionately than that you would vouchsafe me the honour of letting me be Esteem'd what I so sincerely am SIR Your most Affectionate faithful and humble Servant JOHN EDWARDS Cambr June 16. 1697. OF THE Mosaick Doctrine OF THE CREATION BEING Some brief Remarks on Mr. Whiston's New Theory of the Earth In Vindication of the Mosaick Account of the Creation I Have in another place endeavour'd to prove and I hope to the Satisfaction of the Learned and Judicious that Moses's Narration of the Creation of the World is Literal and Historical and that it is a true and just Account of the whole Process of that Divine Work And this I undertook to make good in opposition to the fond Notions which had possess'd some men's heads and had been divulg'd by their Pens viz. that Moses is not to be understood according to the Letter that he speaks to the capacity of the Blockish Brick-makers that were newly come out of Egypt and scarcely understood Common Sense and therefore any Story of a Cock and a Bull would serve them When Moses speaks of the Creation we are not to understand him as if he intended to give any True and Real Account of that matter we must not think that he would trouble the brains if you can suppose they had any of a company of Dull Slaves with Natural Philosophy And when he speaks of the formation of Adam and Eve and several things appertaining to it we must not be so silly as to fancy a Literal meaning of the words but we must take it all in a Mystical and Allegorical Sense Thus the known Theorist dictates to the world Where by the way observe how weak and shallow such suggestions are as if the first Chapters of Genesis were to be read only by the people of that Age in which Moses lived as if none but Drudges and Slaves were to look into these Writings or as if these were so ignorant and stupid that they could not understand a plain and downright Narrative or as if these thick skinn'd Labourers who were not capable of Natural Philosophy could judg of Allegories as if those who could not understand any thing of the plain History of the Creation were able to comprehend Mysteries Parables Hieroglyphicks Mythologies in short as if an Allegorical and Mystical Sense were easier than a Literal one These things duly weigh'd are sufficient to shew the Vanity of that Writer's Discourse Notwithstanding this another and a New Theorist hath lately so far imbibed his Notions as to shew little regard to the letter of Moses's Writings which I take to be a very false Step and a dangerous one in a person especially that is no Profess'd Deist and by his Character seems to own the Authority of the Scriptures It is very strange and ominous that such a one should give so little deference to Revelation and assert things which palpably interfere with the Sacred and Infallible Records of Moses His Grand Proposition is this that the Mosaick Creation extends no further than the Earth or as he expresses it at other times Nothing but the Earth only is the subject of the Mosaick Creation This every where occurs in his Treatise so that there is no need of assigning any particular page as I shall do afterwards when I cite any other passages out of his Book But who is there that hears this Proposition named and is not enclin'd to think that this Learned Theorist design'd to expose the Sacred History of Moses and to erect a doctrine that absolutely runs counter to the first words of the Bible In the beginning God created the heaven and Earth Here is a dichotomy of the Whole Visible World into heaven and Earth and therefore we cannot but infer thence that the Heavenly Bodies are a portion of that System which Moses here describes These words are an Epitomy and Abstract of the Creation more particularly and distinctly delineated afterwards in that chapter and consequently the Mosaick Creation extends to the Heavens as well as to the Earth But what saith the New Theorist to this Why he grants that in the foremention'd Text the Heaven signifies the Heavenly Bodies viz. the Sun Moon and Stars but he denies that it is to be so understood elsewhere and particularly in any part of this first chapter of Genesis for according to him heaven here is no more than the Atmosphere of the Earth or the Region of the Air p. 11. Which is a very precarious and groundless Interpretation for though it is true the region of the Air that surrounds the Earth is call'd heaven and the firmament of heaven in this chapter as well as in other places of the Sacred Volume yet we are to know that both these words heaven and firmament are used here in a Different Sense There is the Lower or Aerial Firmament v. 6 7. and there is the Upper or Etherial one v. 14 15 17. And so heaven is either the Lower Heaven which is no other than the Regions of the Air or the Atmosphere of the Earth of the Vpper Heaven which is the Aether or Region of the Sun and Stars The former of these Heavens was the work of the second day and is distinctly mention'd in v. 8 9. The latter is expresly named in v. 14 15. and was the work of the fourth day The not attending to this distinction of the Two Firmaments or Heavens in this Chapter hath been one occasion of those Mistakes and Misapprehensions which this Ingenious Author and some others of late have fallen under But can there be any thing plainer than this that there was a Double Firmament or Heaven one viz. the Expanse of Air to be between the waters and the waters v. 6. i. e. to be placed between the Seas below and the Clouds above the other viz. the Ethereal Expanse to be the seat and receptacle of the Sun and Stars v. 16 17 God made two great lights he made the stars also and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth How then can it be true that Moses's description of the Creation reaches no further than the Earth Doth not this History make particular mention of that Higher Heaven or Expanse where the Luminaries are doth it not acquaint us what was the design of the Allmighty in making it Doth not Moses in plain words relate that the Fourth Days Work was the creating of the Heavenly Bodies from v. 14. to 20th Doth he not mention the Celestial Lights in general v 14 15. and then particularly the two great lights v. 16. that is the Sun Moon and other Planets for they are all comprehended under these two as being the most Eminent which is no unusual way of speaking in
God would obviate Idolatry by downright Falsifying Can we think that Moses was inspired to Lye that the Heavenly bodies might not be worship'd For so runs the Argumentation of this Gentleman Moses makes the Jews believe in this chapter that God created the Sun and other Luminaries on the fourth day and that they belong to the Earth and a part of this System though there is no such thing but this he feigns as an Antidote against the Adoation of the Host of Heaven One would not have expected such a poor way of Reasoning from a man of Postulata's and Lemmata's Who would think that one so well vers'd in Hypotheses Phaenomena's and Solutions should discourse so weakly But this it is to abandon the Sacred Text and not to adhere to the easy and obvious meaning of the Holy Ghost in these Writings and in this Chapter more particularly It is this that hath betrayed our Learned Theorist to such strange and unaccountable fancies it is this that causes him to defend his Proposition viz. that the six days Creation extended no further than the bare Earth and that the whole System of the Heavenly Bodies is excluded from this History of Moses although in that very History he finds it clearly recorded that the Sun Moon and Stars by which day and night are distinguished are part of the Six days Creation Next I will observe that he is pleased to inform us of a New Calculation of Time in the primitive state of the world days and years were all one Book 2. p. 81. And afterwards Both these Periods are exactly coincident and both are performed in the same space of time And then he thinks good to apply it The Works of Creation were finished in six days that is six years he saith But how will he be able to reconcile this with Gen. I. 5 The evening and the morning were the first day and the same is said of all the other days of the Creation Here an evening and a morning are made the just limits of a day and therefore a day at the Creation of the world was not a Year for there is a greater number of evenings and mornings in the compass of a year And so when we read that six evenings and six mornings were spent in the works of the Creation we may rationally infer thence that these amount not to six Years And this Sagacious Writer would have made this Inference himself if he had not been tempted to the forsaking of the plain intelligible and obvious sense of the words and changing the easy and natural interpretation of Scripture for a forced one Again he thinks fit to symbolize with his Fellow-Theorist and to raise the same Objection against the Mosaick Creation that he did For thus you hear him objecting p. 50 51. The length of the days assigned is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it The Third day hath two quite different nay incompatible Works assign'd it And the Earth with its furniture takes up four entire days when the sun moon and stars are crowded into one single day And the Improbability yea and impossibility of the Works ascribed by Moses to the Sixth day are asserted by him Book 2. p. 89 90 91. These Cavils might perhaps have become some profess'd Lay-Deist but they are unworthy of a person that bears and Ecclesiastical Badg and who is supposed to believe Moses's writing and not to find fault with Inspired History Are we to judg of the Proportion of the Days Works at the Creation Are we to set the Almighty his Task are shallow heads to censure the Operations of the Omnipotent Creator Must they measure every Days proceedings at the first formation of the world by certain Rules and Assignations of their own This is intolerable and no Pagan Philosopher would have acted thus for he could not but know that the Methods of a Divine and Infinite Agent transcend the conceptions of weak and finite minds and that the Supreme Being is not confined to our Proportions but acts as he pleases Natural and Common Productions are not the same with those Primary ones We must not argue from our ordinary Generations to that which was at the beginning of all things There was an other way and method observ'd and it is irrational and senseless to make these a Pattern to them Here was the Immediate hand of God and therefore it is no wonder that the beginning procedure and finishing of these Days Works were of a different nature from those Works that have been since There being an Extraordinary and Miraculous exertment of Divine Power it is as unreasonable as it is Irreligious to find fault with the Distribution of them It is rash folly to expect Mathematical Congruity in every Production and to look for Mechanick Laws in the erecting of the Universe in the System of the Heavens in the Planetary Bodies in the Sun and other Globes of Fire It is incongruous to think that Mechanism was observ'd in the formation of these But of this I will speak more anon Only at present I take notice of the Agreement of the Two Theorists as to the Main though this latter in one place severely chastises the former for the false steps he hath made in his Theory p. 76 77. There is a perfect Union and Friendship between them in the point of enervating the Mosaick History only they do it after a different manner The Old Theorist now we may call him so since this hath dubb'd himself the New one directly and professedly rejects the plain sense of the Mosaick Text whereas this pretends to own it but at the same time miserably wrests and perverts it The one openly declares that what Moses saith is not matter of Fact but the other comes and acknowledges in part that it is an Historical Account but denies that it is suitable to the Reality of things it is a History but False The former plainly and in downright terms owns his dislike of the Literal meaning of that part of Genesis but the latter though he admits of the Literal signification yet craftily and sophistically distorts the sense of the words and puts a force upon them The first uses more freedom and ingenuity telling the world without more ado that the Historical sense is not to be admitted the second pretends to own the Account of the Creation as to the very Letter but baffles it all by uncouth Expositions Thus though the two Theorists take a different Method yet they unite in exposing the Mosaick Writings It is Melancholy Reflection when we consider how men are hereby taught to vilify the Scriptures to dispute the Mosaick Verity to quarrel with the Creation to look upon the several Stages and Processes of it as feigned and because they are not adjusâ—ed to such Measures and Proportions as these persons fancy to vote them to be false and counterfeit What can a well meaning and sober Reader think when he finds our present Author disparaging and
not possibly with any consistency of Sense have discours'd thus unless he had supposed that all that was done in the six days was according to the Ordinary Process of Nature Again when he finds fault with the disproportion of the Days Works as hath been observ'd before and as you may see p. 41. The Time of the Creation of each body was so disproportionate to the Work it self as is perfectly irreconcilable to the divine wisdom of its Creator and the accounts of the Works themselves as they are set down by Moses It is apparent to every intelligent man that he proceeds upon the Laws of Mechanism and verily thinks that these were exactly observ'd in the making of the World which false Notion is one Cause of his False Hypothesis We have mean conceptions of the System of the World if we think it is no more than a Clock or a Watch. The Supreme and All-mighty Being doth not confine himself to Mechanism and the Common Principles of Natural Motion And therefore it is vain to undertake to solve all the Phaenomena's of bodies by them and to attribute all their effects to the common force and operation of Mechanick Powers which as I apprehend is the fault of this Learned Theorist and some others Thus I have briefly touch'd upon the Reasons and Grounds why these persons relinquish the Mosaick Account of the Creation and consequently the System of the World founded upon it and why they take Copernicus or Cartes to be better Writers than Moses In the First Reason that they assign they are Fantastical and dream of a World of Inhabitants in the Moon and the other Planetary Bodies In the Second they are Childish and esteem things by their Bulk and Shew In the Third they are Sneaking and debase themselves and take no notice of their Noble Nature In the Last they debase the All-mighty himself by tying him to Mechanick Laws And in all four they seem to discourse unreasonably unphilosophically unscripturally They fly to precarious Evasisions of Scripture and give such a fanciful account of the Inspired Writers words which are plain and intelligible of themselves that the Theists and some in a Form above them cannot but confess themselves deeply obliged to them The number of those that undervalue the Holy Oracles is great already and I fear such Treatises as these incourage them especially when penned by persons of that Character and Order Those of the Sacred Function above all others should be very Cautious lest they offend in this kind They ought to take care that they interfere not with the Letter of Scripture that they distort not the sense of the Sacred Text and prevaricate with the Book of God and particularly that they reject not the plain History of Moses that they attempt not to run down his Account of the Creation Our Theorist I conceive hath been extremely delinquent as to these things he hath thrown down Moses to erect himself he hath made bold with the First Chapter of Genesis to introduce and establish his own Theorems and Hypotheses such as These that the Chaos was the Atmosphere of a Comet that a Comet pass'd by the Earth at the Deluge c and others about the Revolution of the Earth not till Adams Fall about the Change of its Figure about Paradise about the Abyss about the Planets c. which are Precarious Notions and have no solid foundation in Reason Nature or Scripture to support them All which a late Writer of a free and brisk Genius hath thought fit to expose and even to ridicule But it is not my business to treat this Gentleman at that rate I only observe that he seems to have no regard to the Sacred History whilst he is giving an Account of the Phaenomena of the Earth But yet this is not said as if I were so strait-laced as to abridg this Excellent Writer in any thing of an Indifferent nature or to debar him of a Philosophical Freedom or to lay restraint upon him as to any Disquisitions that are Ingenious and in the least Probable But all this might be done without entrenching upon Moses He might and ought to have adjusted his Notions to the Text and made them comport with Moses's History and built thereupon a Rational Theory and a Scheme of Philosophy consistent with Genesis But it was his Infelicity to take a Contrary Method to usurp upon the Holy Writ wantonly to oppose the natural and obvious meaning of it to offer such Interpretations as give occasion to persons to slight the Sacred Volume and to disregard that sense and meaning of it which lie plain before them To conclude I consider'd the Mischief and Danger which might accrue to the world by that extravagant Liberty which I apprehended Mr. Whiston had indulg'd himself in I consider'd that such daring Flights as these might prove fatal to Young Students in Philosophy and Divinity and teach them to erect their own Hypotheses upon the ruines of the Sacred Text I consider'd how injurious these Attempts are to the Scriptures in general and how derogatory to the Spirit of God who indited them and the sense of this alone without any other Inducement whatsoever moved me to use this Plainness and Freedom with so Worthy and Learned an Author OF THE Motion of the Earth AN Answer to some Objections against some passages in my late Discourse entituled A Demonstration of the Existence and Providence of God relating to the Copernican Hypothesis of the diurnal Revolution of the Earth A Learned Gentleman was lately pleas'd to do me the honour to frame some Objections against the Second Chapter of the First Part of my Treatise wherein I endeavour'd to evince the Being and Providence of God from the Works of the Creation First he censures that passage Page 25. The Sun measures about a thousand miles in an hour He thinks I have not used the right method of calculating the Sun's motion I must confess to him I was not very Studious about that being disheartn'd by the great Difference of Computations which I observ'd in the Authors I met with It is well known how discrepant the Calculations of Astronomers are I have seen in my time a good many Writers on that subject but I could never light upon any one that satisfies that Point wherefore I chose rather to pitch upon a Common and Vulgar Computation than to trouble the Reader with the several Opinions of Astronomers or to offer one that might seem incredible Herein I conceive I have done nothing amiss And truly if the Objector had been Impartial i. e. had consulted one part of my Discourse as well as the other he would not have found any occasion for an Exception against the foresaid passage If he had been pleas'd to take notice of p. 60. l. 15 c. these words would have silenc'd his Scruples As to the motion of them viz. the Planets there is a great disagreement among Writers therefore what hath been said