Geologia, or, A discourse concerning the earth before the deluge wherein the form and properties ascribed to it, in a book intitlued The theory of the earth, are excepted against ... / by Erasmus Warren ...

CHAP. XIV.

1. The Flood could not be caused by the Dissolution of the Earth, and its falling into the Abyss. 2. For it would have been inconsistent with the Description of Paradise. 3. It would have de∣stroy'd the Ark. 4. And have made the Earth of a Form different from what now it is of. 5. It would also have reduced it to a miserable Barren∣ness. 6. And have overturned the Buildings which outstood the Deluge. 7. And have rendred the Covenant which GOD made with Noah, vain and insignificant.

1. LET us now go on to the next Vital or Primary Assertion of the Theory, which is this.* 1.1 The Disruption and Fall of the Earth into the Abyss which lay under it, was that which made the Vniversal Deluge, and the Destruction of the old World. For the vehement and piercing heat of the Sun, having parched and chapped the exterior Orb of Earth, and so greatly weakned it: and al∣so having raised great store of Vapours out of the Deep within this Orb; their force at length grew to be such, that the Walls inclosing them being unable to hold them, the whole Fabric brake, being torn in pieces as it were with an Earthquake. At which time, the Fragments of that Orb of Earth, of several sizes, plunging into the Abyss in several Postures; by their weight, and greatness, and vio∣lent descent, caused such a rageing Tumult in the Waters, and put them into so fierce Commotions and furious Agitations, as made them boil and flow

up above the tops of the new made Mountains; and so caused the general Deluge. But against this we Except also, and say that the Flood could not be thus effected, for several reasons.

2. First, Because it would be inconsistent with Moses's Description of Paradise. What that De∣scription is, we have seen already; and 'tis done according to the proper Rules of Topography. For first, he marks it out by its Quality; a Garden. Then by its name; Eden. Then by its Situation; Eastward. Then by its Inhabitant; Man. Then by its Furniture; every Tree pleasant to the sight, and good for Food. And lastly, by a River to Wa∣ter it, which (rising in it, or running through, or by it) did divide its stream into four Heads or Branches: all which, except one, are made to refer to some Country or other. Thus, Pison is said to compass the Land of Havilah: Gihon, the Land of Cush, or the Asian Aethiopia: Hiddekel, to run towards the East of Assyria. But had the Earth been dissolved to make the Flood; how could these Rivers, or how could these Countries, or any of either of them, exist in Moses's time; as being all swallowed up and for ever perisht in the fall of the Earth? And yet if they were not in being then, how could he describe the Terrestrial Paradise by them, as he does? And yet that they could have no being then, the Theory acknowledges in these words.* 1.2 'Tis true, if you admit our Hypothesis, concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge, then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before—their chanels are all broke up. But then if the Hypothesis of the Theory were true, what meant Moses to put these Rivers,

or any part of them, or any Countries near them, into the Topography of Paradise; when together with the Earth, they were all broke up and dis∣solved so long before?

To make the Argument as short as may be. In case these Rivers were not in the first World, it was impossible Paradise should be described by them. And if they were in that World, it was as impossible they should be in this. And so we have good evidence, that the general Flood could not be the Effect of the Earth's Dissolution. For if it were so, Moses's Description of Paradise must be false. Which, to affirm, would be horrid Blas∣phemy, it being dictated by the HOLY GHOST.

Nor will it mend the matter here, to fall to Cabbalizing, or Expounding things Mystically. So we shall run up∣on the same Rock, and put hideous affront upon the Truth of GOD, by turning it into meer Figure and Falshood. Two eminent Fathers subscribe ex∣pressly to this. The first, Epiphanius, whose words are these. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.* 1.3 If Paradise be not sensible, then there was no Fountain; if no Fountain, no River; if no River, no four Heads, no Pison, no Gihon, no Tigris, no Euphrates; no Fruit, no Fig-leaves, nor did Eve eat of the Tree, nor was there an Adam, nor are there Men; but the truth is a Fable, and all but Allegories. The other Fa∣ther is St. Ierome, who commenting on the fourth Verse of the first Chapter of Daniel; infers thus from it.† 1.4 Let their Dotage be silent, who seeking for shadows and images in the truth, do overthrow the

truth it self, while they conceit that Rivers and Trees, and Paradise, ought to submitt themselves to the Rules of Allegory.

And here it may not be amiss, to take notice how empty, and shallow, and extreamly trifling their reasons are, that argue against a Local Para∣dise, and turn the Holy Story of it into Allegory. Let the Observation run but upon one Writer (who being as good as any that way, may serve instead of all the rest) I mean Philo Iudaeus. a 1.5 Let no such impiety invade our reason, says he, as to suppose that GOD tills the ground or plants a Pa∣radise; inasmuch as we might presently doubt why he should do it. For he could never thereby furnish himself with pleasant Mansions, Retirements, or De∣lights; nor could such a fabulosity ever enter into our mind. For the whole World could not be a worthy place or habitation for GOD; who indeed is a place to himself, and is full of, and suf∣ficient for himself. Where the reason why there must be no Material Para∣dise, and why it is impious for us to think that GOD planted one; is, because it would not be gratifying to him, and because the whole World is not a fit habitation for him. (And therefore by the same reason there never was a World made neither.) As if Paradise had not been planted for Man, but GOD. And* 1.6 elsewhere we find him harping upon the same string, though it sounds but harshly. To take the Paradise planted by GOD, for a Garden of Vines, and Olives, Ap∣ples, Pomgranates, and the like Trees, would be a

gross and incurable folly. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. For one might say; To what end was it? for a plea∣sant dwelling place? But then might not the whole World be thought the most contentful dwelling for GOD the Vniversal King? And a little after; Truly as GOD does not at all want other things, so neither (Fruits for) nourishment. Where the main reason against a Local Paradise again, is (that which really is none) its Vselessness in reference to GOD. As if the design or end of a Paradise, had been to supply the necessities or conveniencies of the DE∣ITY: and because GOD did not need it, and could receive no benefit by it; therefore it must be folly to think he planted it. But what was it that made so learned a Man to argue thus?

3. Secondly, The Dissolution of the Earth could not be the Cause of the general Flood; because it would have utterly destroyed Noah's Ark, and all that were in it. For then that great and heavy Vessel, sinking with the Ground whereon it stood; must certainly have been staved all to pieces, if not overwhelm'd in the Ruines of the Earth. I know that in favour of this Ark, and for its Preser∣vation; it is supposed that the* 1.7 Abyss was not broken open till after the forty days Rain; and that those Rain-waters might set it a-float, and so pre∣vent its ruinous Fall, by keeping it from that im∣petuous shock, which it would have had if it had stood upon dry land when the Earth fell. But this Sup∣position was noted above to be false, and must needs be so. For by the infallible Records we are as∣sured, That the Fountains of the great Deep were broke up, and the Windows of Heaven opened in the same day, Gen. 7. 11. Yea, according to the

order of the Holy Words (if there be any Prio∣rity in those two Causes of the Deluge) the Disruption of the Abyss should precede; the break∣ing open of the Fountains being first mention'd. And so the Ark having no Water to Float on, must certainly have stood upon dry ground when the Earth fell. And consequently the impetuous shock spoken of, could by no means have been avoided; but must certainly have destroy'd the Ark, and all Creatures in it.

4. Thirdly, Had the Deluge been caused by the Earth's Dissolution, the Earth (or dry Land of this Terraqueous Globe) would in likelihood have been of another Figure than what now it bears. For under the Ecliptic (which in the Primitive Si∣tuation of the Earth (according to the Theory) was its Aequinoctial; and divided the Globe into two Hemispheres, as the Aequator does now) the dry ground is of most spatious extent and continuity. Even from the South-west parts of Africa, about Guinea; there is one entire Tract of firm Land, reaching as far as the Persian Gulf, and the Ara∣bian Sea. That is, for the length of Seventy five Degrees, or between four and five thousand Miles. And then Eastward of that Sea, runs the main Land of India; which from the Western parts of it, to Camboia. in the East, is extended between two and three thousand Miles more. And yet it is all-a-long one continued Tract of Land, bating the Sinus Gangeticus, or Gulf of Bengala; which North-wards thrusts up but a little beyond the Ecliptic neither. And lastly, the same Ecliptic runs obliquely over almost the widest part of Ame∣rica Peruana; another piece of Ground three thou∣sand

Miles in breadth. So that the Earth seems to be too whole in its Aequinoctial Regions (I mean those that were so before the Flood) to have been dissolved to make the Deluge. For had it suffered such a dissolution; the middle parts of it falling in first (for some reasions* 1.8 before suggested) it seems probable that it should have been more broken and shattered thereabouts than any where else; if not clean swallowed up: and so the Earth must have been of quite another shape than now it is. But this I speak as a probable, rather than as a certain thing. Where grounds are but pre∣sumptive and conjectural; Assertions built upon them, must not be positive and dogmatical.

5. Fourthly, Had the Earth been dissolved to make the Flood; its Dissolution would have brought it into a state of most lamentable barrenness. For then the inward parts of it being turned outward; and the starven Molds, and stony Materials in its Bowels, being made into its surface in a great measure: in all such places, it would not only have been destitute of such things, as should have afforded nourishment both to Men and Beasts; but more∣over indisposed to, and incapable of yielding them, for a long time. The Husbandman when he plows a little deeper than ordinary, and fetches up the dead Soil, as he terms it; it proves a great hindrance to his Crops. Yet what is that Soil, but part of what (upon the exterior Orb's tumbling into the Abyss) must have been turned up by whole Countries at once? at least in the Aequinoctial parts of the Earth, as being extreamly dried, and having all the heart or fatness suck'd out of it, by the scorching Sun. And where vast pieces of Earth sank whole

as they were, and the ground also was of a richer nature (as retaining, we'll suppose, some of its na∣tive Oiliness) yet there it must have been covered with an huge quantity of Mud, which would have made it barren by choking such things as would have grown upon it. For the Waters below, being by the falling in of the Ground, expell'd from their aboad, and forced to fly up with unspeakable vi∣olence; and then by reason of their plenty and gra∣vity, descending with as much rage and force again; and still as the Earth suffered more fractures, and plung'd into the Waters in more pieces, they feel∣ing new commotions, and being huffed up and put into fresh estuations: by their rising and fal∣ling, and working and beating furiously and in∣cessantly; they must needs wash and wear off a mighty deal of Earth from the fragments that drop∣ped into the Deep. Which Earth being carried into all places, by the tossing, rolling, turbulent Waters, and spread pretty thick upon the face of the Ground; and also incorporate with much other Filth; it could not but be occasion of great bar∣renness to the Earth. For then when the Deluge settled and went off, that Filth could not but harden into a crust or cap upon the Earth's sur∣face, very destructive to the Earth's fruitfulness. Especially if we consider, how long and dismally the Ground was harrass'd by the Flood, before it was incrusted. For, says the Theory,* 1.9 the Tumult of the Waters, and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some Months. And the fluctuations of the Wa∣ters being so boisterous, and withal so lasting, they could not but wash up, or kill most of the tenderer sort of Plants, and many of the hardier and stronger ones too; yea, and perhaps rinse off the

top of the ground it self, leaving it generally bare, and covering it in many places with store of silty, sandy, or gravelly stuff. So that the Earth being first made bare, and then overgrown with the Crust aforesaid (which with the Sun and Wind would be baked on to it, and wax pretty stiff and hard about it) how could it at first have afforded sustenance to the living Creatures? And therefore we read concerning.† 1.10 Attica, That by reason of Mud and Slime which the Waters lest upon the Earth, it was uninhabited two hundred years after Ogyges's Flood. And that the whole Earth should be in as bad a Condition after the general Flood; as Attica was after that Inundation which happen∣ed to it; we need not question, if the Theory has hit upon the true Cause of the Deluge. So that however Noah and his Family might have made shift for Food (supporting themselves by eating some of those Creatures kept alive in the Ark, which GOD (at their going out of the same) gave them for meat, with a general Licence to eat Flesh, Gen. 9. 3.) yet other Animals, for a time, would have been at a very great loss for Nou∣rishment.

6. Again, had the Earth been drowned, by its being dissolved and falling into the Abyss; all the Buildings erected before the Flood, would have been shaken down, or else overwhelmed. Yet we read of some that outstood the Flood, and were not de∣molisht. Such were the Pillars of Seth, and the Cities Henochia, and Ioppa. Touching which (to avoid quoting of several Authors) I shall only re∣cite what I meet with in* 1.11 one. And for a more direct proof, that the Flood made no such destroying

alteration, Josephus avoweth that one of those Pillars erected by Seth, the third from Adam, was to be seen in his days; which Pillars were set up above four∣teen hundred twenty and six years before the Fl••od, counting Seth to be an hundred years old at the erection of them; and Josephus himself to have lived some forty or fifty years after CHRIST: of whom although there b••••no cause to believe all that he wrote, yet that which he avoucheth of his own time, cannot (without great derogation) be called in question. And therefore possibly some foundation or ruine there∣of might then be seen. Now that such Pillars were rear'd by Seth, all Antiquity hath avowed. It is al∣so written in Berosus (to whom though I give little credit, yet I cannot condemn him in all) that the City of Enoch built by Cain about the Mountains of Libanus, was not defaced by length of time; yea, the ruines thereof Annius (who commented upon that frag∣ment which was found) saith, were to be seen in his days, who lived in the Reign of Ferdinand and Isa∣bella of Castile. And if these his words be not true, then was he exceeding impudent; f••r speaking of this City of Enoch, he conludeth in this sort; Cujus max∣ima & ingentis molis fundamenta visuntur, & vo∣catur ab incolis regionis, Civitas Cain, ut nostri mercatores, & peregrini referunt. The large foun∣dations of which huge mass are to be seen, and it is called by the inhabitants of the Country, the City of Cain, as our Merchants and Strangers do report. It is also avowed by Pomponius Mela (to whom I give more credit in these things) that the City of Jopa was built before the Flood, over which Cephas was King: whose name, with his Brother Phineas, to∣gether with the grounds and principles of their Re∣ligion, was found graven upon certain Altars of

Stone. And it is not impossible that the ruines of the other City, called Enoch, by Annius, might be seen, though founded in the first Age. Solinus also witnesseth concerning Joppa, that it was oppidum an∣tiquissimum orbe toto, utpote ante inundationem ter∣rarum conditum; the most ancient Town in the whole World, as being built before the Flood upon the Earth.

Now if things were thus; that is to say, if a Pillar of Seth's erecting (whereon was* 1.12 ingraved the rules of Science) was standing after the Flood, in the Country of Lycia: If the City Enoch was so far from being ruined by the Deluge, that it was not defaced: If Ioppa was so far from be∣ing swallowed up or made an heap of Rubbish, that the Altars in it were plainly discernible, and standing in such order, that the Inscriptions upon them were legible: then most certainly the Earth's Dissolution, and Fall into the Deep, could not cause the Flood. For them, suppose that the Ground had fallen but a Mile, or a Mile and a quarter downward; which we must grant it did at least (according to the heighth of the present Mountains, set at ten Furlongs, when carefully † 1.13 measured by Xenagoras of old) and it would have given such a terrible jar or jounce, as would have shattered the abovesaid Structures all down, and laid them flat upon the Earth, if not sunk them in∣to it.

And that which would have made it more difficult for them to have continued standing, was their Situa∣tion. For Enoch is said to be built about the Moun∣tains of Libanus. But then about the Mountains the Waters would have been most irresistably violent, had the Flood proceeded from the Earth's Dissolution. So we are assured by the Theory.* 1.14 The pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abyss— could not but impel the Water with so much strength, as would carry it up to a great height in the Air; and to the top of any thing that lay in its way, any eminency or high fragment whatsoever: and then rowl∣ing back again, it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon, Woods, Buildings, Living-creatures, and carry them all headlong into the great Gulf. So that Enoch being situate about the Mountain Libanus, the very force of the Waters alone perhaps might have born it down. And then as to Ioppa, I have some where read, That it is oppidum monte situm too, a Town situate on an Hill. Or if it be not, for certain it stands just upon the brink of the Mediterranean Sea: and so could never have escaped being overturn'd. For besides that it must have been shaken with the ge∣neral fall of the Ground; it was placed just where the mighty Fragment, which dived into the Mediterranean, or made the bottom of it, was riven off; and so at the time of its hideous splitting off, the poor City must needs have suffered a very dismal Concussion. And the like may be said, in a good measure, of the Pillar of Seth, it standing not far from the Sea neither.

I know the very Being is questioned of Seth's Pillar, &c. But what some doubt, others believe: and having all Antiquity (as the cited Historian says) on our side; we have ventured to put in this piece of Exception among others. Valeat quantum valere potest.

7. Lastly, Had the Dissolution of the Earth, been the Cause of the Deluge; it would have made GOD's Covenant with Noah, a very vain and trifling thing. Soon after the Flood was dried up, it pleased the great GOD to make an explicit and gracious Covenant with that Patriarch himself, and his Children; and in behalf of all Living Creatures then in being, or after∣ward to exist; that the World should be drown'd no more with such a general Deluge. And this Co∣venant he was pleased to ratifie with a remarkable Sign, that of the Rainbow; which was to be a last∣ing token of remembrance to HIM, as well as a Pledge of assurance to us. So we find Gen. 9 from the 8th verse, to the 17th. And GOD spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, be∣hold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you: and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the Ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more, by th•• waters of a flood, neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And GOD said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature which is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh: and the water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it,

that I may remember the evelasting covenant between GOD and every living creature, of all flesh that is upon the earth. And GOD said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh, that is upon the earth. Now if the Earth had been drowned the Theory's way, what need of all this? Then it had been but GOD's telling Noah, how the Flood came; and that would have made him, and all his Posterity, both sensible and secure enough at once, that such another Flood could never happen. Yea, that scarce need to have been told him neither; inasmuch as the thing would have been throughly apparent, to them that lived in both the Worlds, from the great changes they must have observed: and so the Covenant would have been vain and useless. Yea, which is worse, it would have been perfect Mockery and Collusion; because then the Earth could not have been capable of, or liable to, such another Deluge. So that GOD's covenanting not to drown it any more; would have been as if he should have covenanted that a thing impossible should not be done: that the Fire should not freeze, or the Sun shine darkness. For as neither Sun nor Fire can do such things, so long as they continue what they are; no more could the Earth be drowned a se∣cond time, so long as it continued a dissolved Earth. Yet that it may be delug'd again, is clear from GOD's covenanting that it shall not, and from the Terms of that Covenant. For the Bow in the Cloud is said to be a Token of the Covenant. And that when that Bow is seen, GOD will remember his Covenant. And that he will look upon it, to that very end, that he may remember the everlasting Covenant. Plainly intimating, that if that Covenant were not made; or being made, if by GOD it were not remembred;

the Earth might again be drowned, with as universal and fatal a Flood as ever. But then if it may be so, from thence it will follow, that Noah's Flood could not be caused by the Earth's Dissolution. Because then Nature could no longer have been subject to a second Deluge, and GOD need not have covenanted to prevent it; His very doing it must have been a kind of imposing upon Men, as being but an ingaging to save them from an impossible evil; and to keep that sad Calamity off them, which nothing but miracle or his own Omnipotence was able to bring on. So that in fine, the case is come to this issue; Either that the Glorious GOD has done mighty unworthily (pardon the word) in making a Covenant, which has nothing but vanity and mockage in it; or else that the Theory determines falsely, in making the Deluge to flow from the Dissolution and Falling in of the Earth.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Read the Sixth Chapter of the first Book of the English Theory.
• * 1.2

  Pag. 25••.
• * 1.3

  Ancor. Sect. 57.
• † 1.4

  Eorum d••∣liramenta con∣ticescant, qui umbras & imagines in veritate quaerentes, ipsam conantur evertere veritatem, at flumina, & arbores, & Paradisum putent Allegoriae legibus se debere subruere.
• a 1.5

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. Lib. leg. Allegor.
• * 1.6

  Lib. de Plant. No.
• * 1.7

  Theor. pag. 98.
• * 1.8

  Chap. 9. Parag. 4.
• * 1.9

  Pag. 76.
• † 1.10

  See Sir W. Raleigh's Hist. Book 1. c. 8. §. 11. † 5.
• * 1.11

  Sir W. Ra∣leigh's Hist. of the World, l. 1. c. 3. § 5.
• * 1.12

  Vid. Joseph. Ant. l. 1. c. 3.
• † 1.13

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Plut. Paul. Aemil.
• * 1.14

  Pag. 75.